Nano & Nature

The Internal Struggle

To reach the long range goals of molecular manufacturing which will support Nature most fully, we need to see what holds us back. What we can change about our society or nanotechnology itself?

I have no wish to encourage or support war between the two forms of nanotechnology I see out there today. There are enough hard feelings on both sides. It's more about different ways of looking at the world. One side, let's call them the Mainstream, does not want to consider long range problems or devote resources to projects that take ten or twenty years to pay off. . The other side, call them the Molecular Manufacturers, suffer from lack of funds due to the Mainstream's ability to direct most grants and investment into projects with a shorter term payoff. There are and will be problems and useful achievements from both sides. I'd like to see a more equitable division of grants so that both approaches can make progress. Sometimes, reaching for something that is clearly beyond your present day grasp gets you to your goal faster than a more wait-and-see approach.

The Mainstream seeks short term rewards by using tools available now or in a year or two. The Molecular Manufacturers are taking a different route because they want to create tools that are unlimited and capable of building almost any physical product the human mind can describe in the appropriate molecular assembly language.

Why not wait until the science of today evolves enough to build our ultimate tool? Since science is evolving, we are merely attempting to steer that evolution so as to reach our goal faster. That includes doing research in the next ten years that would not be done for twenty or thirty years if it were left to the Mainstream and their stated belief that no success is possible in the research area that we believe is most important.

To tell the truth, this controversy may be on its way out. There are certainly people in the Mainstream who think it is silly and wasteful to put money into long range plans that are considered very reasonable by the Molecular Manufacturers. Science is about testing to see what is correct, not aggressively holding untested opinions. Before tests can be done, it is best to hold a critical, but non-hostile attitude toward other ideas. The evidence grows that we have reasonable plans for how to build our ultimate molecular manufacturing tools. More scientists are seeing the scientific foundation under the long range plans. More organizations are supporting the Foresight Nanotech Institute, which is the primary organization in the Molecular Manufacturer's camp. See http://www.foresight.org/roadmaps/index.html for more details on their Roadmap Initiative.

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