X-Message-Number: 5373
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 1995 21:22:04 -0800
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Big N Nanotechnology

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In #5362   (Thomas Donaldson)  On Wed, 6 Dec 1995 Wrote:


                >I totally fail to understand how those who feel that it
                
                >[Nanotechnology]  will  make a massive change, cause a
                                >revolution                                    
                
If the elimination of death and the speedup of thought a billion fold will   

not cause a phase change in human society I can't imagine what will.


                >Anyone who reads SCIENCE will see nanotechnology all around
                                >them. RIGHT NOW. 

If you mean life then I agree. A tree can converted air, water and a few  
trace elements into a strong, beautiful solid much valued as a building 
material. I am another product of nanotechnology. A year ago the atoms that 
are now me were in  pigs and  fish and potato plants, not long  before that 
they were in water, carbon dioxide, and free nitrogen.

Nature's nanotech isn't as advanced as what Drexler wrote about, but that's 
not surprising. Evolution is a clumsy, slow, mindless process, but until now 
that was the only way complex things could be built. When human  beings 
evolved and started making tools things changed . How long will it  take to 
develop nanotechnology? Nobody knows, but in engineering, intelligent planning 
will always beat trial and error, so I'm sure it will be a lot less that 
4 billion years.                         


                >it [nanotechnology] will NOT resemble the Second Coming of
                                >Christ in any  way at all.                          
                
I think it's unfair to lump  Nanotechnology (I'm out of the closet, I'm big N 
and I'm proud ) in with the holly roller nuts and the millennia mystics. 

First: It's clear that the singularity will happen AFTER the year 2000,   
how much after is not clear. 


Second: We're not talking about faster than light flight, or perpetual motion,
or anti-gravity, or time travel, or  picotechnology ; if any of those things 
are ever possible it would require a scientific revolution of a fundamental  
nature, and that's not a bad definition of magic. The control of mater on the  
atomic level does not require a scientific breakthrough, it does require  
engineering on a scale  up to now found only in  nature.                 


                >Sorry, guys, but you won't find that it solves all your
                                >problems 

Some have accused people like me of wanting a quick fix. Yes! I'd love that, 
wouldn't you? Others say we want to use technology to avoid responsibility. 
I am guilty as charged, but I'm not asking for a lot, I just want to be able   
to do exactly what I want, any time I want, for as long as I want, and never  
ever do anything I don't want. That's not asking too much now is it.

It's a fantasy of course, nothing is a panacea. The harsh reality can be 
summed up in the sobering words of Ed Regis "Nobody ever said that nano would 
solve every problem. It could only solve easy problems, like poverty, aging, 
and disease." 


                                        John K Clark          

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