Nanotech is powerful enough to utterly subdue the enemy within days.
Gunpowder can't do that. Nuclear weapons could have done that, but we didn't.
Nanotech reproduces, which places it above nuclear weapons in that everyone
can have one. If only three or four powers had nanotech, the situation would
have stability comparable to our own, multiplied or divided by a factor
equivalent to the "first strike" possibility of success. If everyone (N>100)
has nanotech, the situation is the same as if everyone had a nuclear
*arsenal*. We'd be doomed. QED.
-- sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html Disclaimer: Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you everything I think I know.