Hello Nanotechnology, Bye, Bye Money! Source: Cabell.org Abstract
Nanotechnology, the science of building structures
(including cars, food, houses, and space ships) by the manipulation
and placement of individual atoms and molecules, is coming. It will be
a social and technological revolution exceeding in significance any
before it, including the Neolithic and Industrial Revolutions. The
most fundamental social change nanotechnology will bring will be the
elimination of all things economic. The "anything box", a device which
will allow anyone to produce anything with freely available resources,
designs, and energy, will be one of nanotechnology's gifts.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Introduction to Nanotechnology
Nanomachine (also known as "Nanite") Anything Boxes Bibliography
Appendix
Applications of Nanotechnology Introduction
If you are not keen on technological revolutions of
unparalleled magnitude, you will not find the future agreeable.
Nanotechnology is coming, and it will be a social and technological
revolution exceeding in significance any before it, including the
Neolithic and Industrial Revolutions. Any attempts to catalog the full
range of changes nanotechnology will bring would fall hopelessly
short; the future never stands up to exacting prediction. This paper
attempts to address one of the most fundamental of social changes
nanotechnology will bring.
Nanotechnology will eliminate all things economic. This
change will come soon after the creation of the anything box, a device
which will allow anyone to produce anything with freely available
resources, designs, and energy. The system of exchange developed over
thousands of years of uneven distribution of resources and knowledge
will disappear when everyone is given equal access to everything.
To the uninitiated, nanotechnology may appear to be
nothing more than science fiction or alchemy. No doubt space travel
would have sounded as unbelievable at the turn of the last century,
when neither airplanes nor automobiles had impressed themselves upon
the world. Nanotechnology does not violate or even challenge any
currently understood scientific laws, but it does challenge our
understanding of the potential capabilities of science, and this is
what leads so many to feel that nanotechnology is nothing but science
fiction. Nanotechnology is undeniably theoretical at the present time,
but as fantastic as some of its projections may sound, it is still a
science based upon the accepted interpretations of physical laws.
Current research cannot prove that all the nanoscientists' projections
are achievable or, for that matter, unachievable. Future research
could, of course, uncover previously unknown laws, or previously
unknown aspects of current laws, which would limit or deny
nanotechnology. However, there is an ever increasing body of
scientists and an ever increasing body of research, and neither has
discovered any laws which would make nanotechnology unattainable.
Introduction to Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the science of building structures
(including cars, food, houses, and space ships) by the manipulation
and placement of individual atoms and molecules. No longer will the
"bulk" processes of current manufacturing and chemistry, which are
only been able to manipulate atoms and molecules in large numbers,
limit our scientists and engineers. Nanotechnology is not merely
miniaturization carried to its ultimate limit, it is an entirely new
way of ordering matter.
Nanotechnology will bring the development of
nanomachines, machines with dimensions measured in nanometers; among
these nanomachines will be assemblers, nanoscale robots capable of
assembling anything, including duplicates of themselves, by
atom/molecule manipulation, and matter probes, nanoscale robots able
to record the design of and/or disassemble any structure.
Nanotechnology's claims are absolutely outrageous, and
this quite reasonably excites skepticism in even the most open of
minds. Skepticism is being eroded, however, as the body of supporting
technical explanations, based upon established engineering, chemistry,
and math, grows. Make no mistake, nanotechnology is almost entirely
theoretical at this point. A great deal of current research, however,
will directly aid its development, and much that will indirectly aid
it, but as of yet, there are no assemblers, there are no matter
probes. Nevertheless, the handwriting is on the wall; if not the
handwriting on the wall, then at least the logo of IBM written on a
nickel surface in 35 Xenon atoms. Nanotechnology is theoretical in the
same sense that the space program was theoretical until Sputnik.
Nanotechnology is working toward but has not reached a goal which
seems by all known physical and chemical laws to be fully achievable.
Nanotechnology is not an attempt to violate, circumvent, or redefine
any laws of physics, chemistry, or biology; nanotechnology is the
direct result of taking these laws at face value, and taking them to
their limit.
The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not
speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom. It
is not an attempt to violate any laws; it is something, in principle,
that can be done; but in practice, it has not been done because we are
too big.
Richard P. Feyman (1918-1988), U.S. scientist,
professor, forefather of nanotechnology. There's Plenty of Room at the
Bottom, talk at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society
(1959).
It could even be said that nanotechnology has already
been mastered and proven, but thus far by nature only in such organic
structures as the ribosome (the natural assembler of proteins, which
it makes from amino acids, according to instructions coded into the
RNA it processes).
Nature is a self-made machine, more perfectly automated
than any automated machine. To create something in the image of nature
is to create a machine, and it was by learning the inner working of
nature that man became a builder of machines.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), U.S. philosopher. Reflections
on the Human Condition, aph. 6 (1973).
Nanotechnology is not perfect. Powerful new technologies
can bring powerful new dangers, and nanotechnology will be no
exception; the dangers may not be able to be entirely avoided, but
their potential for harm can be greatly reduced if prepared for.
Regardless of the dangers, nanotechnology is coming.
Nanomachine (also known as "Nanite")
Nanotechnology is the science of construction by
individual manipulation and placement of atoms and molecules. The
greatest obstacle to this approach to construction is the large volume
of atoms and molecules which must be individually handled in building
even the smallest of functional structures. Nanomachines will be the
tools which allow the work to be done efficiently. Nanomachines are
the heart of nanotechnology.
In the broadest sense, a nanomachine is any machine
whose operation requires that it be manufactured to atomic
specifications and whose size is measured in nanometers; this broad
definition includes nanocomputers, assemblers, and matter probes. It
is not uncommon, however, to see the term "nanomachine" used in such a
way that implies only assemblers and matter probes.
Assemblers
An assembler is a nanomachine capable of assembling
objects by the positioning, addition, and removal of individual atoms
and/or molecules.
While assemblers may sound like science fiction, they
are instead science fact, and have been for billions of years; nature
relies on nanomachines such as the ribosome. The ribosome is,
fundamentally, an assembler; it assembles enzymes from instructions
coded in the ribonucleic acid (RNA) it processes. Scientists need not
wonder if assemblers are possible, only how they can learn to emulate
and build upon the brilliance of nature.
The "assembler" is a general class of nanomachine.
Assemblers can be universal assemblers (non-limited) or limited
assemblers. Assemblers can be self-replicating or
non-self-replicating. And, while the term assembler is most commonly
used to describe nanomachines whose purpose is construction, it should
be noted that these assemblers will be just as skilled at
disassembling (see also Matter Probes). This ability to break complex
structures down to their constituent atoms or molecules (depending
upon the need of the user) will allow the ultimate level of recycling
and raw material harvesting.
Self-Replicating/Non-Self-Replicating
While it would be possible to build a structure with a
single assembler, it would not be practical (unless the structure was
of a size measured in nanometers). Current predictions suggest that
assembly speeds of one million molecular/atomic manipulations per
second would be feasible in early assemblers. This sounds impressive
until one considers that there are 5x1025 atoms in a kilogram of
carbon. Assuming that only one molecular manipulation needed to be
performed on each atom in the carbon sample, and that all
manipulations could be made at the 1x106 manipulations/second rate,
this means that a 1 kilogram carbon structure built by a single
assembler would take 5x1019 seconds or 1.6x1012 years. Obviously,
assemblers must build structures in working collectives.
The easiest way to create the assemblers necessary (a
number which is dependent on the structure and the assembler work
speed) would be to give these nanomachines the ability to
self-replicate; nature's nanomachines use this method. When not
needed, the number of assemblers would be kept low. Once assemblers
were issued work, each could create two nanomachines, then begin their
work; each newly constructed assembler would also create two
nanomachines before beginning to work. In this manner, assemblers
would have the power of exponential growth (an alternative would be to
have all assemblers self-replicating until the population threshold is
reached and then all would begin working). The reproduction would
terminate when some threshold was reached, such as when the
availability of a resource of energy went below some critical level.
There are potential dangers in this approach, known as "grey goo" and
"red goo" problems. Grey goo is the accidental and uncontrolled
self-replication of assemblers, red goo is the intentional and
uncontrolled self-replication of assemblers (nanoterrorism).
Self-replication is not the only solution to assembler
creation, but it is the most robust. One alternative would involve the
separate production of assemblers. In this scenario,
non-self-replicating assemblers would be produced within assembler
factories, and then distributed to individuals/companies. In this way,
the total number of assemblers in circulation could be controlled by
the assembler suppliers. The primary thinking behind this sort of
approach would be to attempt to reduce the dangers of assemblers by
controlling their numbers.
Limited/Universal (non-limited)
One of the fears voiced most often with regard to
nanomachines relates to the potential damage they could do if used by
the wrong people; nanomachines which could be used to assemble
absolutely anything would certainly be a huge liability in a world
still inhabited by people willing and eager to kill each other over
issues of money, land, politics, and religion. One solution to this
problem would be to create limited assemblers, assemblers which are
limited to the assembling of one specific product or one category of
product. These could themselves be made by non-limited assemblers.
It is difficult to say how successful the effort of
limiting assemblers would be. One area in which to look to get some
understanding of the difficulties involved would be computer
networking and operating system security. Directing the assemblers
will be internal nanocomputers. If assemblers are to be limited, it
will be within these nanocomputers that the limiting will occur. It
may be easy to limit an assembler to the production of a single
structure, such as a specific make, model, and year of car. It will
not be as easy to limit assemblers to the production of certain
classes of item, such as food. In such cases, the assembler will need
to accept design specifications (recipes) from an outside source,
presumably some form of computer. It would likely be the job of this
computer to determine whether or not this design specification
describes a structure which the assembler is allowed to construct. If
the design specification is found to not be in violation of the
assembler's limitation, the external computer would pass the data on
to the assembler with some sort of authorization. This is just one
example of how such a scheme could work. In this case, the primary
danger would be that authorizations could almost certainly be faked.
Limited assemblers may only delay access to non-limited
assemblers, just as a dead-bolt on a front door can only delay the
entry of a determined burglar. (For a further discussion on the
possible conversion of limited assemblers to universal assemblers, see
the Anything Boxes for Everyone section under Economic Implications of
Nanotechnology.)
Matter Probes
A matter probe is a nanomachine (self-replicating or
not) able to move itself through any given structure, recording all
aspects of the structure's atomic/molecular construction, and (if
desired) disassembling the structure in the process. Assemblers will
almost certainly be able to act as matter probes. Since the specific
role of "assembler" is very different from that of "matter probe",
they will be treated here as if they were separate nanomachines.
In the probing of large objects it would certainly be
advantageous to utilize many matter probes; as discussed in regard to
assemblers, self-replication would often be the best method of
achieving this. Data collected by the many probes could then be stored
in a central nanocomputing machine which would collect the data from
all matter probes and to which each would report. This information,
which fully describes the structure, is its design description.
Design descriptions are "streamable", that is each can
be stored as a sequence of data (in current computing, this would be
in the form of "0"s and "1"s). These sequences of data can be stored
as computer files are, and could therefore be saved, copied, exchanged
with other humans, or supplied to assemblers. It must be noted that
the design specifications cannot be a brute recording of the type and
position of each atom in the entire object (as is the method used by
CAD packages). The brute recorded data, no matter on what media it was
stored, would be larger than the object. Instead, the design
specifications must employ schemes for describing structures
compactly; current computer software compression algorithms may be a
useful conceptual starting point in this pursuit. Nature does an
excellent job of briefly describing complex structures, this is
demonstrated by the compact size of DNA versus the size of the
structure it describes.
Disassembling/Non-Disassembling
The ability of a matter probe to disassemble the
structure it scans plays an important role in some proposed matter
probe applications. One proposed application is for the creation of
matter facsimile machines ("matterfax"), devices capable of sending
objects by way of laser/radio/network communication. Matter probes
would be used to disassemble the object to be sent, while creating a
design specification for the object. The design specification would
then be transmitted by radio/laser/network to its destination where
universal assemblers would build an object identical to the original.
Research
Nanotechnology, as stated earlier, is still largely
theoretical. No research team has produced an assembler, nor will any
for many years. Nanotechnology is not a serendipitous science; its
goals will only be met by determined and directed work. Many
difficulties presently face the nanotech researcher, chief among them
is the difficulty in securing research funds; research sponsors are
less and less inclined to involve themselves in long-term research
programs, which is exactly the kind of support nanotechnology
researchers need since nanotechnology is not going to have
manufacturing/medical applications (and therein profitability) for
some time. Despite its slight funding and few researchers,
nanotechnology is making significant advances.
Nanotechnology is being approached from two
diametrically opposed scientific directions; the general approaches
are commonly referred to as top-down and bottom-up. The approaches are
complementary in that the knowledge gained from one approach does not
often duplicate the knowledge gained in the other approach. The
approaches are different and will have different timetables, but when
nanotechnology has finally built its assemblers, it will be the
product of the knowledge gained in both approaches.
Top-Down
The top-down mode is so named because its path to the
creation of nanomachines begins with the current technology of bulk
structures, structures built by the manipulations of millions/billions
of atoms/molecules at a time, and moves toward nanotechnology by
building smaller and smaller machines. Current nanotechnology research
being done in the top-down mode focuses most strongly on protein
engineering; other research being done which will have significant
impact on nanotechnology include piezochemistry, an area of science
which focuses on the creation/manipulation of very reactive (willing
to form a bond) sites on molecular structures, such that molecules can
be "snapped" together like Legosä.
Protein engineering is the science of understanding and
trying to apply a growing body of knowledge on the building of
proteins from their component amino acids. Since proteins are created
by the individual manipulation of molecules, a job requirement of
nanotechnology's assemblers, there is much to learn by close study of
protein formation.
The top-down approach promises to bring more immediate
accomplishments and rewards than does the bottom-up approach. The
explanation of this stems largely from the fact that the top-down
approach is not a radical departure from the direction of current
technology (especially biotechnology) but a continuation of it; many
of its tools and much of its knowledge has already been developed and
need only be applied in new ways.
Of all the sciences striving to create the first
nanomachine, protein engineering may be closest to that goal, for
already these machines exist in nature in a magnificent diversity of
form and function. However, in understanding this vast array, the
biologist's dilemma is one of discovering the shape of puzzle pieces
from the completed picture. For while other methods attempt to create
nanomachines atom by atom, biologists must wade through several
billion years of redundancy, obsolescence, and innovation to discover
their keys to construction. But with both the increasing computer
power for modeling and knowledge on how proteins fold, that goal might
not be far off at all.
Niles Donegan, "Understanding Nature's Machines",
Cornell's SciTech Web Site
(http://www.englib.cornell.edu/Scitech/s95/prot.html).
Bottom-Up
Nanotechnology research in the bottom-up mode focuses by
definition on mechanosynthesis, the use of molecules and atoms as the
building blocks in the manufacturing of structures. No
nanoengineer/nanoscientist has yet managed to do anything but nudge
atoms around on a surface, no 3-D structures have been built atom by
atom. The atomic manipulations performed so far have been done with
STMs (scanning tunneling microscope) and AFMs (atomic force
microscope), neither of which are capable, in their current form, of
doing anything but push or pull atoms across a 2-D surface. No
functional structures have yet been made atom by atom by the
nanoengineer/nanoscientist; achievements thus far have been limited to
atomic graffiti, starting with the 35 Xenon atom writing of "IBM" on a
nickel plate and continuing at various companies and universities
since. While not atom-by-atom construction, spectacular achievements
have been made in the area of building complex 3-D structures using
synthetic DNA. Dr. Nadrian Seeman of NYU received the 1995 Feynman
Prize in Nanotechnology for his work in this area, including the
construction of cubes and more complex polyhedra. These synthetic DNA
structures "could serve as building blocks for new and highly
resilient materials made of DNA frameworks, to which other functional
molecules could then be attached."
Economic Implications of Nanotechnology
Imagine for a moment that every human had an "anything
box", a device which would allow them to produce absolutely anything
at the touch of a few buttons. Its operator could select from an
already compiled list of objects that would include food, cars,
computers, and homes or he/she could provide it with design
specifications for any additional objects he/she might wish this
device to build; these additional design specifications could be
gotten for free off of the FutureNet. The device would draw its power
from freely and readily available energy, such as sunlight. The device
would build from free and readily available raw materials, the raw
materials being atoms and molecules. The device could produce anything
for anyone free. Try now to imagine anything economic existing in such
a world. What products or services would companies offer? Why would
their workers work? Who would buy their products or services? What
would governments trade if all resources were freely and plentifully
available within each country? What economic plans could governments
form? What would money buy? The economic system of nations,
businesses, and people would be eliminated because economics would no
longer apply.
Having identified the destination, and some of the most
critical way-points to the destination, it is still left to show that
each way-point could and would be reached.
The way-points are:
* Everyone must have anything boxes. Anything Boxes
An anything box, as stated earlier, is a device which
can build anything at the touch of a few buttons. An anything box can
build from previously stored design specifications or it can be
supplied with and store new design specifications. The anything box
would be one of the simplest and most robust applications of
nanotechnology's universal assemblers; an anything box would simply be
a collection of universal assemblers and a computer with user
interface for storing and retrieving design specifications and issuing
jobs to the universal assemblers. Anything boxes could be conveniently
small until they are required to begin work, at which point they could
grow to enclose the object of any size being assembled, and thus
provide whatever environment was required by the assemblers; upon job
completion, the assemblers could return the anything box to its
original size, disassembling it in such a way that it exposed the
assembled product.
Anything Boxes for Everyone
The anything box is simply the robust application of the
universal assembler. The creation of the universal assembler is thus
the development of the anything box. The availability of the anything
box is the availability of the assembler.
Assemblers will not be in everyone's possession
immediately after they are developed, but it will not take long. The
first wave of assemblers will be limited by their newness, the next
wave by limitations purposefully placed into their design to restrict
their use, the third wave will be limitless and freely available.
Assemblers will be developed in a world still fueled by
money. The first assemblers will be useful in industry producing
previously unmakable materials, in medicine preventing previously
unpreventable disease, but they will not be capable of universal
replication (the ability to replicate any object simply by knowing its
design specifications [position and compositional data]). These
assemblers will be costly and will employ primitive and thereby weak
and limiting technology (as did the first computers).
The second generation will be constructed by
scientists/engineers with the knowledge and ability required to create
universal assemblers (and they will have created and tested them in
laboratories), but who will for reasons of security in a world densely
packed with humans distribute only assemblers whose functions are
limited by design to the making of particular objects (food, housing,
cars, and toward the end of the second generation, space ships). The
world will still be one based upon dollars and trade, and these
assemblers will still be costly. They will be used initially only in
industry and eventually in limited roles for personal use (in the
home, car, etc.).
The third wave will come. And the human universe
(meaning the area of the universe occupied by humans) will change
completely. The third wave will come because it must. The entry of the
assembler into the human universe will bring great instability (just
as a large round boulder placed on the peak of a mountain surrounded
by meadows would bring great instability to the meadows; it is a
system on the edge of instantaneous change, waiting only for something
to occur that is highly likely). Once the universal assembler escapes
its laboratorial confines, it will be only a matter of time before
everyone has it, and anything its owner wishes it to build.
The universal assembler will escape the laboratory in
any number of ways; it need not escape under its own power, nor would
that be its likely course. It will escape with the help or
carelessness of its creators, through the help or carelessness of its
users, and/or through modifications of its limited cousin.
From the Researchers
At some point in the history of humankind, there was the
first recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but it was not unique for
long. All the history of science is much the same. When one research
team discovers that an STM/AFM can be used to position atoms, many
research teams endeavor to do so. Some research team will be the first
to create an assembler, and they will publish their results, and their
work will be quickly duplicated. Another research team will be the
first to create a universal assembler, but their work will be quickly
duplicated. The knowledge required for their construction will not be
unavailable as the design for a B-2 bomber is, but freely available as
are objects of general scientific interest, developed within the free
exchange of information that generally exists in academia, objects
such as the transistor, the STM, and the computer. Universal
assemblers will be understood, and producable by many. Keeping them
out of the hands of the general public would require the absolute
control of every one of a growing number of research teams that would
be scrambling to explore the new horizon. It is useful in considering
the infeasibility of assembler suppression by
governments/organizations/individuals to consider the demonstrated
infeasibility of suppressing ideas. Assemblers are behaviorally like
ideas. Governments cannot ever fully suppress the ability of their
citizens to form or distribute ideas; some have tried, and all have
failed. Assemblers, like ideas, can spread without bound and without
cost to the disseminator and they can be transferred easily and
anonymously. Government suppression/control, as demonstrated in the
attempts to control illicit drugs and illegal arms, always hinges upon
the ability to control/detect the production of the items, the ability
to track the exchange of the items, and that those involved in making
and enforcing the laws are in general agreement with them. The
production of assemblers need not be detectable, the distribution of
assemblers need not be detectable, and the majority of the people,
those who will form the laws which may attempt to regulate it, will
want access to the benefits of universal assemblers. This is the
instability, this is a system on the verge of a great and fundamental
change.
The general public will get assemblers. It will be
impossible to control the actions or the knowledge of all engaged in
assembler research. It may be that the earliest universal assemblers
will require large vacuum-sealed rooms in which to operate, or large
rooms bathed in the feedstock for the object to be made. But this
requirement will only be for the infancy of universal assemblers; just
as MIG/TIG welders create local areas of inert gas to provide the weld
with its optimal environment, so too universal assemblers will very
rapidly be designed to be able to create any local environments they
need to protect and supply their work areas. Gone will be the
requirement of large assembler labs. Assemblers will be able to
perform their work anywhere.
Researchers will have within their grasp some form of
omnipotence; and human nature is such that someone will not keep it
within his/her laboratory. Some researcher who can create the sailboat
he has always wanted, or the dream home she has always wanted, will
find tempation too hard to resist. And they will bring their universal
assemblers home and build their dreams with them, since assemblers
will cost functionally nothing to operate. And some will distribute
them; and so they will spread.
From the Employer
If the universal assembler does not enter the hands of
the general public by the hands of the researcher, they could do so
through the hands of the user. Researchers may produce for noble
reasons, such as to increase knowledge in a specific field, but they
also do so for the profitable employment of their research in
industry/medicine/etc. Universal assemblers will find immediate
employment in industry (before the change to a money-less society).
And these employers will suffer the same temptations as the
researchers.
By the Limited Assembler
And also it may be possible to birth the third wave from
the limited assemblers of the second. The limited assemblers will be
capable of making only specific items (e.g., a Sony 8mm HandiCam video
camera model #605941) or a group of items (e.g., food). Because their
function will be limited, ranging from use in homes as food
preparation devices to use in engineering companies as prototyping
devices, they will be considered safe for general distribution; and
they will be widely distributed. These items will be limited in their
abilities by design; the designer of the assembler will introduce
limiting logic or components which will cripple the otherwise
unlimited assembler. The crippling methods that will be used will most
probably be crude. It will be easier to cripple a universal assembler
than to design and build an assembler from scratch for one specific
task, just as it is easier to install anti-virus software on a
computer rather than write a unique operating system for that computer
(which would protect it from all virii and also prevent it from using
all software not specific to that OS). Nature's limited assemblers,
the ribosomes, are not merely crippled universal assemblers, but
assemblers which have evolved specific to their task; the protein
engineers are demonstrating the difficulties involved in trying to
modify these limited assemblers for other tasks. Nature's method of
limiting is somewhat more elegant than the methods likely to be
implemented by humans. The mechanisms used to cripple the universal
assemblers will likely be simple, and they could be defeated. Just as
the Internet is littered with the cleverness and skill of budding
computer scientists dabbling as computer software "crackers" who can
find and exploit the weaknesses in software to make crippled software
fully functional, so too will the coming age be littered with budding
nanoscientists dabbling as limited assembler crackers.
The universal assemblers will be available to everyone.
And this will bring an awkward time, the transition time between the
moneyed human universe and the money-less one, between the human
universe where universal assemblers will be controlled by a select few
and the one in which everyone will have access to them; it will be a
time best spent moving off planet Earth, gaining some distance between
a society of good and bad that will be struggling to adjust to new
lives of excess. Better to be with a bull in a meadow, than with one
in a closet.
Design Specifications for Everyone, Free
Matter probes will allow every design to be stolen as
soon as the product with the design is released. The matter probes
allow the generation of design specifications for every object
accessible to anyone. These design specifications would be
distributed, accessible freely to everyone over the FutureNet.
Just as warez (illegally distributed software) traders
go to great effort to put warez on the Internet/bulletin board systems
of the current age, so too would the future designz (illegally
distributed design specifications) traders go to great effort to put
design specifications on the FutureNet. Money will collapse when the
practice of downloading designz becomes common, and thus destroys the
market.
It is useful to consider the current difficulties in
place for the warez traders, since these will be the potential
problems of the designz traders. The current difficulties involved in
distributing warez is centered around the large size of each software
package (ranging from 1 MB to more than 150 MB) and the limited
networked computer resources available to the warez traders. Since
warez trading is illegal, and since the vast majority of sites with
fast access to the Internet are legitimate companies/schools who do
not wish and will not tolerate their network being used for illegal
activity, warez traders are generally prevented from establishing
permanent and publicizable sites with fast network access. The common
practice is instead to use innocent and unsuspecting fast sites which
have publicly accessible storage space to stash warez. Typically, more
than one server is hit in any one upload period, since as soon as the
system operators discover the data on their computer, they will delete
it. Warez lists are then distributed like treasure maps by the traders
through various e-mail lists, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels, and
web pages. Designz distribution may begin as wares distribution has,
but it will quickly become mainstream. Warez has remained somewhat
secretive, because by its definition and the problems related to its
nature, it can never have any reliable mainstream outlet. The warez
traders do not have the computing facilities of mainstream outlets
like Microsoft or Netscape to handle the level of data flow. This
problem will be solved for the designz traders by the ability to
expand their computer systems as needed with universal assemblers. The
designz trader will not long suffer the difficulties of the warez
trader, and because of this, they will become relied upon, and
acceptable. Everyone will have access to design specifications.
Raw Materials Enough for All
In today's world, raw materials are unevenly
distributed. This uneven distribution is the basis for most of the
world's trade. Raw materials need not be possessed only by those who
have been graced by fortune or been given a fortune. Nanotechnology
can make all raw materials equally available, whether the raw
materials are molecules, compounds, or atoms. Assemblers can build the
raw materials of molecules and compounds from their constituent atoms;
and assemblers can be used to indirectly produce all the atomic raw
material which may be rare or unavailable.
Nanomachines cannot directly alter the atom; they cannot
add or remove protons, neutrons, or electrons. Nanomachines (in the
form of assemblers) can, however, build the particle accelerators and
nuclear reactors necessary to synthesize any atom. Physicists have
been doing this work for years. The science of synthetically producing
atoms is over 50 years old. The most recent feat of atomic alchemy was
the production of Ununbium, element 112 on the periodic table of
elements.
Element 112 was discovered on 9th February 1996 at 22:37
at the GSI in Darmstadt, Germany. The identified isotope currently is
the heaviest atom ever produced by man and has an atomic mass of 277,
that is, 277 times heavier than hydrogen. The new element was produced
by fusing a zinc atom with a lead atom. To achieve this, the zinc atom
was accelerated to high energies by the heavy ion accelerator UNILAC
at GSI and directed onto a lead target.
Mark Winter , Ph.D., Department of Chemistry at the
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England
(http://www.shef.ac.uk/~chem/web-elements/genr/Uub.html).
In the case of Plutonium production (for nuclear
weapons), the science of synthetic atom production has already
experimented with generating large synthetic atom yields (in the case
of Plutonium production, the process involved the use of breeder
reactors to transform Uranium into Plutonium). The science is proven.
No raw material need be out of the free and easy reach of anyone.
Energy Enough for All
Almost all current proposals for assembler designs
include the use of free sources of energy such as solar energy or
energy contained in nutrient raw materials. The feasibility of these
approaches is suggested by the fact that nature employs these methods.
All Things Economic Will Fail
Everything economic depends upon the restricted access
to goods and services; nature has promoted this system by the unequal
distribution of resources. Where there is no such restrictions there
is nothing economic, whether in planned or moneyed economies.
Nanotechnology will create the anything box, and the anything box will
eliminate the ability to restrict access to goods. The elimination of
the goods industry will immediately eliminate the bulk of the service
industry, most of which exists to directly or indirectly support the
goods industry. The need for many of the service positions which
currently exist, doctors, lawyers, auto mechanics, etc., will not
immediately disappear with the introduction of assemblers, but will
disappear as assemblers are integrated into the designs of the future.
Doctors will become almost unnecessary as medical assemblers are able
to constantly circulate through the human bloodstream, repairing minor
and/or major damage and abnormalities. Lawyers will become less
necessary as society spreads itself into space; there will also be
fewer reasons to file lawsuits. Auto mechanics will become unnecessary
as cars, in their future forms, are made self-repairing. What remains
of the service industry will fail with the disappearance of the bulk
of its labor force; no one will be required to work to gain access to
shelter, food, and luxuries, and what work remains will become
volunteer enterprise.
Conclusions
Nanotechnology is coming. Nanotechnology will have the
power to alleviate or inflict human suffering on an unimaginable
scale, making the human universe a heaven or a hell. The future which
comes to pass will likely depend upon the foresight and preparedness
of the society which will greet the assembler age. Planning for that
society is only possible through predicting its environment-the world
created by the infusion of assemblers, and the rapid elimination of so
many of the aspects which have marked civilizations throughout
recorded history. The chessmaster is able to control his opponent by
looking moves ahead and considering at each move all his opponents
likely actions. The nanoscientists/nanoengineers must always look well
beyond the current accomplishments, trying to predict nanotechnology's
course so that society and nanotechnology can find partnership instead
of ruin. This paper has been an exploration of one eventual
consequence of nanotechnology, the elimination of all things economic;
this will by no means be the only significant social upheaval, but it
will be one of the most fundamental. Society must prepare for this
future.
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Appendix
Applications of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology offers engineers a new world of design
possibilities. Present engineering is a constant battle of material
versus design; engineers must spend the bulk of their time ensuring
that designs are in-line with material limitations. Nanotechnology
will bring new materials and fewer material limitations. Inventors
need not wait for nanotechnology to establish itself before engaging
in design speculations, and they have not. Ideas put forth thus far
include: diamondoid construction, utility fog, and the orbital tower.
Diamondoid Construction
Material properties are determined by a material's
molecular structures, macroscopic/microscopic features, and
macroscopic/microscopic defects. Nanotechnology offers the ability to
control all these aspects of materials and in-so-doing achieve
formerly unrealizable materials.
Diamondoid crystalline structure components are one
major category of materials which promises to provide superior
material properties. The name "diamondoid" refers to a carbon-based,
diamond-like molecular construction. These materials will be durable,
stiff, have long lives before fatigue failure, and have excellent
thermodynamic properties. Further, these structures would provide
pressure induced reaction states, currently being studied as
piezochemistry, which would allow structures to be built by "snapping"
together diamondoid nanoscale building blocks.
Utility Fog (active, polymorphic material)
Instantly, anything, in any color. Imagine having a car
that can change its make, model, and color at the touch of a button.
No assemblers necessary. Whereas assemblers are geared toward the
assembly of objects by the placement of atoms and molecules, a utility
fog would create objects in a slightly less permanent manner by
interlocking the arms of 100-micron robotic cells ("foglets").
"Instead of building the object you want atom by atom, the tiny robots
linked their arms together to form a solid mass in the shape of the
object you wanted. Then, when you got tired of that avant-garde
coffeetable, the robots could simply shift around a little and you'd
have an elegant Queen Anne piece instead." Utility fog can vary its
material properties by varying the arrangement and behavior of its
foglets; even color could be varied since the color of an object is
determined by the object's properties as an antenna in the micron
wavelength region. Each foglet could have an 'antenna arm' with which
it could vary those properties.
Orbital Tower and the Sky Hook
First proposed in 1960 by Yuri Artsutanov, a Russian
engineer, the orbital tower (and its variation, the sky hook) would
act as a bridge into space. Instead of escaping the Earth's atmosphere
by the gross inefficiencies of burning rocket fuel, why not build a
tower 35,000 km tall (twice the distance required for geostationary
orbit), and take the elevator? In the sky hook variation, the tower
would be replaced with a cable, extending some 35,000 km into space.
Contrary to common sense, under this design neither the tower nor the
cable would be supported by the earth. Orbital towers and sky hooks
would be satellites in geostationary orbit, meaning that they would be
orbiting the Earth at the same rate the Earth is turning and thus
would be, so far as the Earth would be concerned, standing still. The
height above sea level at which objects can be in geostationary orbit
is 17,500 km. By building towers and sky hooks twice the height of
geostationary orbit, the towers and sky hooks can touch the ground
while maintaining a center of mass at the 17,500 km height. Orbital
towers and sky hooks would serve as energy efficient bridges from
space to planet.
by Benjamin "Quincy" Cabell V
q97@besiex.org
http://www.cabell.org/Quincy/Documents/Nanotechnology/hello_nanotechno
logy.html
Assemblers
Self-Replicating/Non-Self-Replicating
Limited/Universal (non-limited)
Matter Probes
Disassembling/Non-Disassembling
Research
Top-Down
Bottom-Up
Economic Implications of Nanotechnology
Anything Boxes for Everyone
From the Researchers
From the Employer
By the Limited Assembler
Design Specifications for Everyone, Free
Raw Materials Enough for All
Energy Enough for All
All Things Economic Will Fail
Conclusions
Diamondoid Construction
Utility Fog (active, polymorphic material)
Orbital Tower and the Sky Hook
* Everyone must have free and ready access to the design
specifications describing all desired objects.
* Everyone must have free and ready access to the raw materials
required by anything boxes.
* Everyone must have free and ready access to the energy required by
anything boxes.
* When the destination is reached-a universe in which all humans have
free and ready access to all things-it will be shown that there would
be no value in exchanges.