Nanotechnology
Will the benefits of nanotechnology justify its development
in view of its' inherent risks?
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Introduction
A multitude of challenging and perplexing questions emerge from
a new technology that could overshadow all previous technological
development. This new science is called nanotechnology. I propose
to set forth its' hopes and dangers, and give the arguments for
and against its' development. Since this technology is so broad-based
in its' applications to many fields, in the final analysis, all
of these fields must be considered in balance to determine the
full implications of a decision with regards to pursuing or preventing
development of nanotechnology.
I will present a brief definition of this science, then
present the benefits to be gained, the possible methods
to development, the dangers, the defences against
these dangers, and a conclusion.
Definition
Perhaps the easiest way to start thinking of nanotechnology is
to consider in what ways it already exists. Individual biological
cells are nature's nanomachines. They contain a program consisting
of many thousands of atoms assembled into DNA molecules. Within
the cell are instructions for cellular design, defence, repair,
propulsion, molecule manufacturing, materials gathering, energy
storage and use, and the timetable for its' own cloning and division
into two new cells. Within each and every one of the trillions
of cells in your body is a full blueprint of the structure and
organization of each type of cell and organ that makes up your
body and all information needed to assemble those organs into
an integrated organism. As biotechnology and computer
research spiral into ever smaller levels of complexity and
capability, the nanomachine will be born. The key to its' success,
of course, will be the ability to assemble� as many copies of
itself as needed, in a fashion similar to biological cells. These
machines will contain miniature controlling computers built one
atom at a time on a size scale making even the smallest current
microchip seem, in comparison, like the monster computers of
a few years ago. Think of them as tomorrow's computers, manipulating
matter in ways paralleling the ways in which today's software
manipulates information.
- Hence the name "assembler" often used in referring to nanomachines.
Medical Benefits
What will be a few of the capabilities and benefits of these new
machines. Doctors now sometimes use expert systems software to
analyze symptoms and come to decisions regarding possible treatments.
Nanomachines will be able to enter a human cell, cork-screwing
their way through the cell membrane like a virus, comparing healthy
and sick cells, repairing damage, tracking down harmful cells
and killing them. Working en masse, they will overwhelm and destroy
disease (including genetic), repair damage, and even help rebuild
missing limbs and organs. The possibilities to medicine seem
almost limitless, including life extension, and the halting or
reversal of aging.
Methods
What else will nanomachines do? Let's start with a simple project
-a diamond and sapphire rocket engine. In a vat of water lies
a platform. On that platform is a single master nanocomputer.
Into the vat is pumped trillions of smaller slave nanomachines
and their fuel. All of these contain tenacles that act like brain
neurons and pull the whole mass of machines into a loosely connected
shape resembling a rocket engine. They communicate digitally
with the master computer through simple push rods. Next is pumped
into the vat a slurry of carbon and aluminum. These atoms will
be caught by the tenacles around each nanomachine and bonded
(using tiny robot arms� ) into diamond fibers (for strength)
and sapphire (for heat resistance). They will form the rocket
engine atom by atom to exact specifications, build onboard pumps,
valves, computers and self-repair mechanisms. All materials in
the engine would be at the precise density and thickness required
for maximum performance, and the whole unit will have no fasteners
- it will be seamless, weigh a small fraction of current engines
and be virtually indestructable. Many more such developments
will provide cheap, safe flight into space, which I'll come back
to in a moment.
- At atomic scale, inertia is negligable, so these arms could
each perform a million operations per second.
Down to more mundane matters. Into your lunchbox, toss a couple
cups of dirt, some straw and water. Close the cover.� Inside,
the nano-lunchmaker will perform the functions of plants, animals,
and food preparers. A couple minutes later, open the cover. There's
your hamburger, salad, french fries, and milkshake. Also produced
without human labor will be houses, transportation and communication
networks, solar power systems, cities reaching into the sky or
down into the ground, and pollution control and reversal systems.
Our furniture could be built not by, but out of nanomachines,
capable of restructuring themselves into whatever style and color
of furniture we prefer that morning. All the walls would be covered
with a coating of nanopaint, changing colors and displaying 3-D
moving environments (coral reefs, Carlsbad Caverns, Grand Canyon,
imaginary fractal landscapes, or even what a nanomachine is seeing
traveling through your body. The walls could also be your school).
Access to almost all knowledge and information could be taken
for granted. A nanocomputer memory the size of a pin head could
contain a trillion books. To that could be added music, movies,
more artificial environments, individualized tutorials, etc.
- The cover doubles as a hypertext terminal.
Beyond Earth
With all this medical care, food, and wealth for everyone, what
will we do with our spare time? Reproduce, of course. Geometrically
- right out into space. Our own solar system contains enough
asteroids to build space colonies with 1,000 times the area of
earth's continents. Then we can build huge ultra-thin solar sails
powered by photons hitting them (at the speed of light, of course).
These sails could pull loads through frictionless space, gradually
accelerating to near light speed. They would be powered in deep
space by laser stations orbiting a star (starting with our own).
Their laser beams would supply light to continue accelerating
the light sail far outside our solar system. Pushing technology
to the limits of the possible would involve many such space tugs,
each pulling the seeds of our life system to a new star�. There,
new space colonies would be built, humans cloned by combining,
splitting, and recombining DNA molecules, to provide the necessary
variations of individuality. These could be incubated in artificial
wombs, raised in families by human-like robot parents, be taught
bio-medical ethics (to study the morality of human cloning, of
course), given a fully pluralistic� education and grow up to
send yet more civilizations hurtling through space at near light
speed.
- They will slow down by launching a hugh self-expanding, atom-thick
mirror that will reflect the light onto the reverse side of the
light sail. The mirror continues accelerating away from the light
sail, as the sail decelerates.
- It could even be a computer simulated fully-interactive reality,
pluralistically presented, and individually investigated and
understood according to that individual's interpretive web of
beliefs, structuring sense-data into a coherent, consistent whole.
The Beginning
How will we begin this task of manipulating atoms to build the
first nanomachine and self-reproducing assembler? We are getting
very close right now with the tunneling electron microscope.
Its' tungsten needle can move, tack, and untack single atoms
into bonds with other atoms. We could also use bioengineering
and chemical manipulation of bacteria to produce our first atomic-scale
tools. The technology would bootstrap its own design and development,
using artificial intelligence, to produce better and better programs
and tools. All of the development must be kept under tight containment
and released only after being fully checked and tested.
The Dark Side
We've already analyzed the "limits of the possible"� for ethical
and constructive uses. What about the limits to unethical and
destructive use. If individuals or groups not subject to checks
by ethics committees had the ability to design and build or even
program omnipurpose nanomachines, what could they do with them.
Suppose I had this power to myself, unchecked and unmonitored.
If I was a terrorist; I could instruct a nanomachine to spy,
poison, change the writing on documents, alter a person's perceptions
(even all of them) or manipulate his or her mind, bring others
under my control for the feeling of power I get or even destroy
the world by producing a replicator without a "stop-multiplying
counter" and one that might overcome all active shields�. I could
have them produce thousands of city-sized earth moving machines
that would scrape the continents into the sea or drill through
the earth's crust and turn this planet into a volcanic fireball.
All this from a microscopic "thing" I could produce by myself
in my closet using tools currently available. I could even produce,
if my mind was bent to, the creature in "Alien" (itself a perfect,
surviving nonethical machine). It would seem the only foolproof
way of insuring our safety against all terrorists such as these
would be to produce an anti-nano nanokiller machine. But here
we face two problems. 1. It must destroy all the other active
shields, if it can, in order to get rid of all nanomachines.
2. We could become so dependent on nanotechnology that our lives
would cease if our life- support system were unplugged.
- K. Erik Drexler's term. See Engines of Creation, which goes
into more detail on this subject.
- Yet to be designed shields against dangerous nanomachines.
These shields will themselves be made of nanomachines.
Conclusions
At this point it looks as though this technology isn't such a
good thing after all. In spite of the incredible possibilities
(founded-on, but surpassing those of computers), the dangers
are only too clear to one who understands the potential destructiveness
of the nanotechnology equivalent of a computer virus, worm, or
Trojan Horse gone wild. In view of the dangers, should development
continue? To this I must give a qualified answer. If it could
be stopped, should it be? I would say yes, at least until we
come up with some reasonably foolproof safeguards. Secondly,
will it be stopped? No. Even an oppressive world dictatorship
is unlikely to be able to prevent all secret research. All it
would take is one hidden basement lab and a determined individual
or small team. If they made this discovery in secret, if they
chose, they could use their new-found powers selfishly and brutally.
Defences
Since we already have the developmental tools and are using them
to build smaller and smaller machines,� it seems inevitable we
will finally build a self-replicating nano-machine loosely patterened
after nature's own. Our best plan would seem to be to do so and
work hard at developing defences against possible terrorists
and reap all the benefits we can (medical, intellectual, and
physical) from this emerging science.
- We now have motors and turbines on microchips.
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