From Russia, A Roadmap

Diamond nanotechnologies are highway to automated mechanosynthesis -- base of cheap manufacturing for new generations of nanotechnology equipment, construction materials, computers, energy transformers, weapon and intelligence systems, medicine and civilian defense infrastructure.

So says a newly published "industrial report" from Russia. The report claims to include a roadmap to automated diamond mechanosynthesis, as well as information on mechanosynthesis equipment, mechanical computing, and scaling of mechanosynthesis.

As far as we can tell from the description on their website, this looks like an endorsement of everything Eric Drexler wrote in Nanosystems, with one crucial addition: the roadmap to mechanosynthesis of diamond, which appears to be based on a detailed survey of synthesis and analysis methods for diamond.

We find it surprising, and encouraging, that this was not kept as a military secret. However, without reading the report, we don't know how much new work is in it. But even if it were only a repackaging of previous molecular manufacturing work, it would still be significant. And the combination of contemporary diamond research with "proposed time estimations and probable roadmap from current technologies to automated diamondoid mechanosynthesis" implies that they have something new to contribute. (As soon as we obtain a copy of the report, we will provide a complete analysis.)

We can't predict what effect this will have on the course of molecular manufacturing development and use. It seems likely, though, that this publication will increase global interest in molecular manufacturing, and thus speed up development to some degree -- especially if it publicizes a roadmap detailed enough to be converted to policy or experiment. We at CRN also hope that this report will help to focus discussion on the actual proposals, rather than on years-old discredited strawmen like atom-grabbing fingers.

Comments

[mark]

So, two capable countries in the past week have announced thier pursuit of MM. Also 2 countries we in the US may not necessarily want to have control of MM before we do. hmm, interesting.

Any bets going around whether or not the US will make a public announcment about MM development before elections, after, or not at all....

[Mike Deering]

My guess is "not at all". There are numerous reasons why officials of counties make these kinds of statements, one of them is in hopes of generating international cooperation or at least an international consensual understanding. With regard to advanced technologies with serious national security implications the U.S. government is more interested in maintaining global superiority than cooperation.