Re: The Nanotech Rapture


On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:48:10 -0500
Tim Tyler <seemysig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Is there a Nanotech Rapture to be Ruptured?"

- http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/anissimov20080613/

An interesting comment in that article is this one:

------------
At the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology conference in Tucson last
year, the CEO and Founder of Zyvex, James Von Ehr, told us he had a
research team working towards an nano-assembler.
------------

What makes it interesting is that as far as I can see there is no
mention of this on the Zyvex web site, early Zyvex material was very clear
about this being a major goal of the company but there currently visible
material is all about actual products and services they have on offer.

In short it looks like an indication that those who are busy doing
the job of developing nano-asssemblers and the like are doing so quietly
rather than making a public noise about it. I rather suspect that the next
real news we'll hear about progress on developing a nano-assembler or
nano-fab will be when someone announces one.

The process between the early exciting bits ("We've made a wheel" -
"We've made aa wheelbarrow" - "We've made a motor") and the late exciting
bits ("We've made a nano-fab") can surely be expected to consist mostly of
a lot of not very exciting hard slog characterised by a lot of trial and
error at various scales and a lot of very reasonable commercial secrecy.

That being said some news does creep out like the technology roadmap
http://e-drexler.com/p/07/00/1204TechnologyRoadmap.html and the project
behind it which does show that there are a lot of people nibbling away at
the problem and making progress too.

It's hard to tell from the outside how much progress is really
being made and it seems those on the inside are not talking much, but there
are indications that there are people on the inside and things are
happening.

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