Nanofactory Implications Interview

Nanofactories: How, and why, might they change the world?

I explain a few of the reasons in an interview published on the New Haven Independent's web site: "Nanofactories: Brave, or Grave New World?"

In the interview, I point out that the entire World Wide Web, along with lots of intellectual property issues (yes, I really did say "kerfluffle"), came about because we learned to manufacture just one thing - transistors - in almost unlimited quantity. Nanofactories will let us manufacture a wide variety of stuff in almost unlimited quantity.

I also discuss the likely cost of developing nanofactories before 2020, and I talk about the "Gray Goo" concerns.

I was quite happy with how the interview turned out. Alex Halperin did an excellent job of reducing an hour of technical discussion to a very readable interview that preserved and presented the key points effectively.

Chris Phoenix

Comments

[Summerspeaker]

The intellectual property kerfuffle, as you put it, has me profoundly worried about what we'll do with nanofactories if and when they appear. Faced with digital abundance, the powers that be have mandated scarcity to protect the interests of the few over the many. I have the sinking feeling they'll impose the same restrictions on physical plenty.

[Chris Phoenix, CRN]

The "powers that be" are not unitary. They're a bunch of different special interests interacting within the framework of government. The farm lobby could not care less whether Napster is legal.

And different interests with different models of how to make money may get in each other's way.

And different IP regimes and pricing structures in different countries will "leak" to some extent, unless government in a given country becomes oppressive on the scale of North Korea.

So I expect nanofactory-based abundance to have at least some impact in most countries. How much, and how quickly, and what opportunities are lost, are questions that aren't easy to predict the answers to.