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The future of nanotechnology is quickly approaching bringing with it more trouble than good, unfortunately the public is unaware of the threats that this technology bears. Soon nanobots will be manipulating the atoms that construct the physical world we live in, creating anything and everything.

Nanotechnology is not a new concept. In 1959 one of the greatest theoretical physicist Richard Feynman conducted a talk titled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," in which he stated that one day tiny machines no larger than a few thousand atoms would be possible to build. Technology has shown through Moore's law that it has the capabilities of doubling its power every 18 months, yet it is not the technology that we do not posses, it is the size. "But miniaturization is another one of those accelerating technology trends. We're currently shrinking the size of technology by a factor of 5.6 per linear dimension per decade, so it is conservative to say that this scenario will be feasible in a few decades." (Live Forever, Raymond Kurzweil)

The term nanobot comes from the nanometer which is one billionth of a meter. These microscopic machines will most likely be constructed from nanotubes. Discovered in 1991, these nanotubes are 100 times stronger than steel and 50,000 time's thinner then the human hair. It is possible that these nanotubes could also be used for the brains since they can serve as transistors and the wires that connect them.

Types of Nanobots

There are currently two types of nanobots: general assemblers and a special class of assemblers known as self-replicators. (Will tiny robots build diamonds one atom at a time?) In order to build anything of size you need billions of nanobots for the job, otherwise it will take years to complete. Assemblers are cell-sized robots used for manipulating matter to complete the job, while self-replicators make copies of assemblers.

Nanobots have a wide range of use in almost any technological application including a rather scary thought of human-machine melding. There are many possibilities with many positive outcomes if used properly. Unfortunately humans have shown time and time again that we exploit any genuinely good idea, thus creating larger negative outcomes then positive ones.

While reading the information regarding the growth of technology and birth of nanotechnology it seems to me that people are quite optimistic with the present outlook of the future. I however see the beginning of the post-human era at hand.

The nightmare scenario will start with the practical physical dangers and lead to a more involved moral dilemma as time passes. For starters let's look at the potential dangers of nanobots on a physical level, more specifically the issue of self-replicators ceasing to self replicate. The plan is to program the nanobot's software for self-destruction after so many nanobots are created, if too many nanobots are in the same vicinity, or based on other conditions that fit the job site. There is no way to be sure that this will always be the case, and unfortunately it might only take one failure to spell disaster for us all.

"A fast-replicating nanobot circulating inside the human body could spread faster than a cancer, crowding out normal tissues; an out-of-control paper-recycling nanobot could convert the world's libraries to corrugated cardboard; a rogue food-fabricating nanobot could turn the planet's entire biosphere into one huge slab of Gorgonzola cheese." (Will tiny nanobots build)

Crandall, BC, ed. Nanotechnology: Molecular Speculations on Global Abundance.
Massachusetts: Institute of Technology, 1996.

Westphal, Sylvia Pagan. "Remaking the World One Atom at a Time." Los Angeles Times 3 Feb. 2000, home ed.: B2.

R.F.S. "Is Nanotechnology Dangerous?" Science 290 (2000): 1526-1528.

Lemonick, Michael D. "Will Tiny Robots Build Diamonds One Atom At A Time?"
Time 19 June 2000: 94-95.

Service, Robert F. "Atom-Scale Research Gets Real." Science 24 Nov. 2000 http://www.ebsco.com