In our most recent C-R-Newsletter, the feature essay is by Jamais Cascio, CRN's Director of Impacts Analysis. His title is "Nano, Geo, Uh-Oh," and here is an excerpt:
The deployment of molecular manufacturing technologies will give individuals and small groups production capacities far beyond what we've ever experienced. That's what the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology has long argued, and it's a crucial point.
Whether we're talking dry nano or wet, diamondoid or biomimetic, the ability to shape materials at a molecular scale with systems able (in principle, at least) to self-replicate will be fundamentally transformative. We simply can't reliably apply our understanding of how people behave with limited capacities to a world where individuals no longer face those same limits.
With molecular manufacturing, we'll be hard-pressed to make a clear distinction between the potential power of individuals and the power of nations...
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