Backyard Inventors fabricate custom Nanotechnology
Suppose it were as easy for hobbyists to manipulate virus-sized objects as it currently is for them to create software on a computer? Obviously, any hobbyist can use nanotechnology in the form of microchips. But a microchip factory runs billions of dollars. Suppose it cost a hundred dollars. And suppose any form of nanotechnological device, for any purpose, was equally inexpensive to construct -- for medicine, high-energy physics, telecommunications, transportation etc. What impact would this have on science, technology and society?
When we look at the almost two millennia required for the development of steam power, there is one key factor that appears to be critical in slowing down its development -- the cost of high-quality iron and steel. This problem, specifically, holds up the process of development of the steam engine. Without inexpensive iron and steel, the basic materials needed to construct the highly specific and detailed innovations involved in the ultimate, functional technology are unavailable. Specifically, they are unavailable to the individuals and small business types who have the freedom and inclination to innovate at will. If inexpensive, high-quality iron and steel had been available to individuals of moderate means earlier, wouldn't the process of product development have been speeded up considerably? And, wouldn't it have been possible for governments to focus on possible methods to facilitate the development of high-quality iron and steel -- coal, coke, the blast furnace? Of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty.
Similarly, would inexpensive nanotechnology facilitate the development of controlled nuclear fusion, in our society. Is this the material we need the amateur inventing geniuses to have at their disposal? Or, is this a potential terrorist nightmare: "Nanotechnology Hackers"?
