From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Sun Sep 08 2002 - 15:48:30 MDT
On Sunday 08 September 2002 05:58, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> On Sat, 7 Sep 2002, Max More wrote:
> > Intel to unveil nanotechnology plans
> > http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/956443.htm
>
> I guess there was a reason why the term "molecular manufacturing" was
> coined. Apart from gratuitously mentioning buckytubes, the only
> nanotechnology in Intel's news is use of nm instead of um to describe
> structure sizes.
>
> Still, it would be really nice to see large-scale single molecule
> manipulation, even if it's just being used for die interfacing. Once such
> capabilities exist this could become a gateway towards something more
> interesting.
Don't expect the first steps into the field to match the dreams of the
prophets. Actually, don't expect the later one's to match, either. Read
some prophecy about computers from the '50s. Then look at your desktop. The
prophecy doesn't closely resemble what actually happens, but this doesn't
mean that what happens is less remarkable. Or less desireable. Asimov
essentially missed the concept of usuform robots, such as are used in
assembly lines today. His early robots were a toy for the super rich, and
not much more useful than the robots that could be bought today as toys for
the rich. And nobody in his stories had something like an Aibo, though that
would have mitigated some of the problems that he accurately predicted in his
stories. (Well, people demonstrating against job losses is actually a pretty
easy thing to predict.)
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