Book Review On

NANOFUTURE: What’s Next for Nanotechnology?

By J. Storrs Hall

Aileen Grace Delima September 6, 2007

I. Summary

Eric Drexler coined the word nanotechnology by analogy to microtechnology. By mid

1990’s, nanotechnology started showing up in science fiction, popular scientific and technical

publications that brings so much confusion to the people. Nanotechnology is defined into

nanoscale and eutactic technology which does not physically exist today.

Technology is changing. Nanotechnology is specifically the technology we predict

when technological progress goes beyond atomic physics. The road to technology was a more

or less straightforward extension of biotechnology and like a five-mile race of different

countries. But where are we now?

Currently we are in biology and lab nanoscience stage. Nanomachines are going to be

among the most complex things that have ever designed. Autogenous technology if they

existed is able to build more machines like themselves but it depends on scaling laws. But

there is no such thing as free lunch. Why bother to build molecular machines? Atomic scale is

where matter is digital; they don’t wear out.

In the age of nanotech, household synthesizers will be available; clothing will be

made of nanofibers; houses underwater. In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a mile-high

tower that could accommodate one hundred thousand people. With nanotech, maybe up to a

billion could be housed. But personal responsibility is disputed because of the tendency to

make drugs or weapons in home synthesizers.

Space colonization, space agriculture, skyhook concept and pier for spaceships

represented solutions to quite a few of the world’s problems as seen from the 1970s. This

includes population crisis and hunger, pollution, and to some extent war. At its height, it
could have been called a movement by 10,000 member L5 society and numerous public

figures. By 2050 nanotech will make possible dwellings in space that is completely self-

sufficient.

Back in 1940s, robot was designed after an animal by Asimov. Robots will abound for

whatever there is to be done including utility fog. Tremendous monopoly is a major concern.

It engenders poor quality as well as high prices. But the general population could have by not

more than the price of raw materials. Farming and manufacturing comprise 30% as replaced

by automation since 1900; the rest is information handling and services. The main horror of

the socialist vision is that it makes people part of a machine. We must make sure that we are

the masters of robots than their slaves.

In September 1984, AI mania was at its peak. Building an AI program is hard; it is

much more like building a brain. Asimo, the famous Honda robot in the shape of human was

primitive by standards of animals. Nevertheless, the design of more complex machines will

continue to be possible but needs full understanding.

About 10% less sunlight reaches the ground today than in 1950. Haze comes from

industrial effluents and biomass burning. In the future, clean-up will be done by aerovores

and skysweepers.

In the twentieth century, the cause of human disaster that clearly stood out above all

the others was war. Al Qaeda attacked the Twin Tower last September 11, 2001. Personal air-

craft simply could not have brought the towers down. Further, nanoweapon could easily

target politicians and war would decline. Unlike biotechnology, it is already here and easier to

hide than nanotech. That’s why it could possibly create superflu, madcow prion on chickens

and deadly anthrax as biological warfare.

In 1890 heart disease and cancer killed 170 people per 100,000 per year. In 1990 the

figure was 514. Drugs came along but drawbacks are also attached to them. With
nanomedicine we can live long and prosper. Transhumanism is another perspective of human

improvement. Crime strongly correlated to low IQ would vanish.

Technology extended their power and gave them mastery over the world. It both helps

and hurts. Nanotechnology offers frontiers in many directions. The solution to crowding and

resource depletion is clearly to move into outer space. People need challenge for the

betterment. But it is still a matter of individual choice.

II. The Author

John Storrs Hall is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers in the field of

molecular nanotechnology. He founded the sci.nanotech Usenet newsgroup and moderated it

for ten years. He has written several papers on nanotechnology. Dr. Hall is the chief scientist

of Nanorex Inc., fellow of the Molecular Engineering Research Institute and Research Fellow

of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. Dr. Hall is something of a poet and has

composed verse concerning nanotechnology. In 2006, the Foresight Nanotech Institute

awarded Hall the Feynman Communication prize. He graduated cum laude with the degree of

B.A. in Mathematics at Drew University last 1976 along with other awards. Then he took

M.S. in Computer Science at Rutgers University and continued Ph.D. in Computer Science at

the same university last 1994.

His contributions have been fairly eclectic, coming in a number of fields. This

includes the physics of computation, algorithms, computer architecture, programming

languages, AI and design automation, agoric systems, nanotechnology and futurism and

machine ethics.

The confusion about nanotechnology brought up by science fiction was one of his

motivations in writing the book. Other aspects included the problems such as population
crisis, hunger, disease, and war that made him developed ideas like space pier, utility fog, and

the novel flying car.

He made original observations and also reviewed many literatures encompassing various

fields of science. In every chapter he put quotations or excerpts from his references.

III. TEN Most Important Points

 Technology both helps and hurts.

o They have shaped our biological evolution. It has had a profound influence on

the social structure and physical circumstances of humanity and was a

necessary precursor to urban civilization.

 Possibility and human’s desire shapes future technology.

o Future technology is shaped by what people want. It’s also shaped, of course,

by what is possible.

 It’s all a matter of perspective.

o Either we have overrun our natural niche and have nothing to hope for but to

fight over dwindling resources. Or we stand at the threshold of the universe,

at the dawning of the age of true intelligence, and human adventure is just

beginning.

 Humans need challenge.

o Humans need to face human sized problems. Too hard and the result is

continual failure and a broken spirit. Too easy, or no challenge at all, and the

result is boredom, apathy, and ultimately, random acts of irrational

destructiveness.
 The power of thought and human mind.

o Designs get more and more complex. There is a constant rain of new engine

types being invented. Digitization of information has allowed and utter

transformation of our ability to handle, manipulate and transform it.

 Things change.

o Everyday life in the age of nanotechnology could be wildly different from

what it is now, but it doesn’t have to be. Nanotechnology offers frontiers in

many directions that were not available before. The solution to crowding and

resource depletion is clearly to move into outer space.

 No free lunch.

o There are trade-offs in building those above mentioned machines. Once

nature is essentially mastered, extending one’s grasp can only encroach on the

lives of other people.

 Human difference.

o The real dangers are no dangers from the technology itself, but the effect of

shortsightness and greed in the face of a revolution in human affairs (i.e.

Prisoner’s dilemma).

 The choice is yours.

o Each of us will have all the options, and can be biological humans, physically

autonomous robots, and members of upload communities, serially or even at

the same time.

 We don’t know what the future brings.

o Our present lives will seem as poor compared to what future has to offer, if

only we embrace the possibilities and work-with open eye-, but also open

minds- to make them reality.