From: The Baileys (nanotech@cwix.com)
Date: Tue Mar 23 1999 - 03:11:47 MST
Eliezer Yudkowsky wrote:
>I'm not sure whether this is better or worse than Zyvex going it alone.
>On one hand, the US will be a heck of a lot less naive when somebody
>finally wakes up and realizes they have the power to take over the
>world. On the other hand, Zyvex, faced with the actuality, might lose
>the blinders.
If a U.S. company makes the breakthrough discovery that sets a clear path
(or even a potentially clear path) towards full-scale molecular
nanotechnology, I expect the federal government to declare eminent domain
over such intellectual property immediately. Nanotechnology in the hands of
industry represents too much of a security risk (not that the U.S.
government is necessarily effective at insulating its intellectual property
from pilfering). The interesting case will be where another country (or
business within such country) makes the breakthrough progress. To hedge
against such a circumstance, I suspect that the chief research nations
(U.S., the EU (in aggregate), Japan, etc.) will form a joint Nano Project in
the next 10 years similar to the Human Genome Project once the prospect of
full-scale molecular nanotechnology is no longer a novelty in an MIT
Technology Review article but instead simply a matter of time and dedicated
research effort. There will be elaborate technology sharing protocols set
up and so forth. The last thing the current global economic regime wants is
for China or some other nondemocratic government to be able to bring
exclusive rights to MNT to a bargaining table. MNT is the "oil" of the 21st
century and beyond except that who has it isn't based on geographical luck
but R&D budgets.
Doug Bailey
doug.bailey@ey.com
nanotech@cwix.com
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