Who has the hype?
Scientific American's Understanding Nanotechnology presents the cutting edge of a new technology that will find usage in medicine, space exploration, communications, manufacturing, and almost every other aspect of modern society. Imagine getting an injection of "smart" molecules that can seek out cancer cells and destroy them without harming any of the surrounding tissue. Imagine a simultaneous space launch of thousands of robotic probes, each no bigger than an insect, and each programmed to do a single task in concert with all of the others. And that's just the beginning. Nanotechnology is the future of science.
That's the breathless description of a book from the usually staid editors of SciAm.
Who has the hype?
Here are some visions of what may be possible through advances in nanotechnology, in combination with advances in biotechnology, information technology and the cognitive sciences:* Nanocomputers smaller than a bacterium;
* Medical technologies that provide early detection and characterization of diseases or illnesses and enable targeted delivery of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, gene therapy, and sensors;
* Bioengineered tissues to replace damaged or diseased tissues;
* Data storage devices with memory densities sufficient to store the entire collection of the Library of Congress on a device the size of a sugar cube;
* Wearable digital systems that serve as personal brokers-- interacting with our surroundings, anticipating our information needs, seeking it out, and delivering it as needed;
* Materials up to 100 times stronger than steel, at a fraction of the weight; and
* "Clean" manufacturing processes that truly build from the atom up, reducing or eliminating or re-cycling material waste, energy waste and other of today's by-products.
That's U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce Philip J. Bond on May 26, 2004, in a keynote address at the Pennsylvania Nanotechnology Conference. He continues:
This audience knows these are no longer the pie-in-the-sky fantasies of some wild-eyed science fiction writer. And maybe once they were. But, in fact, there are scientists and engineers here in this room and elsewhere in the United States and around the world working to make each of these visions a reality. And some may be closer to realization than you might imagine.
Who has the hype?
Some of the possibilities border on the truly miraculous:* Enabling the blind to see better, the lame to walk better, and the deaf to hear better
* Curing and preventing AIDS, cancer, diabetes and other afflictions
* Ending hunger
* Clean, renewable energy
* Supplementing the power of our minds, enabling us to think great thoughts, create new knowledge and gain new insights.
That's more from Mr. Bond, at the same conference. But is it hyperbole, or realistic speculation? These quotes, and those from yesterday, certainly do not sound any more fantastic than CRN's descriptions of advanced nanotechnology.
So, when government officials or scientists downplay the possibilities and the implications of molecular manufacturing by calling it "hype," we wonder if they might be looking in the mirror.
More tomorrow.
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