From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Thu Jun 15 2000 - 07:25:03 MDT
This from today's Nature:
Nature 405, 730 - 732 (2000) "Nanotech thinks big" by Colin Macilwain.
This is the first paragraph:
"There is no such thing as bad publicity, it is sometimes said. But ever
since Eric Drexler
brought the term 'nanotechnology' into vogue in his 1986 book Engines of
Creation, some
researchers have felt that the field has been burdened by unwanted baggage.
Drexler
envisioned an era in which factory production lines were replaced by
self-replicating,
nanoscale 'assemblers' — and warned that such entities could supplant
humans to become the
dominant 'life' forms on our planet. These ideas were quickly seized on by
transhumanists —
people who imagine what the world will look like after technology has
rendered us extinct.
But today, nanotechnology is acquiring the respect researchers in the field
believe it
deserves. ..."
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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