From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Tue Nov 17 1998 - 10:49:44 MST
aegis@igc.apc.org (Kathryn Aegis) writes:
>Why so quick to label any sort of critique of nanotech as uninformed
>skepticism?
It sometimes looks like that is happening because typical criticisms
from reputable scientists simply ignore elementary arguments that nanotech
advocates have been making for years.
Read the article through Crit and see how easily Ralph Merkle answers it:
http://crit.org/http://www.techreview.com/articles/nov98/whitesides.htm
Drexler keeps claiming he wants to hear informed criticisms of his claims.
As far as I can tell, the only criticisms of his arguments about what
technology is possible are ones that were refuted quite a while ago.
>We can't have it both ways--we set ourselves up as skeptics to provide
>critiques on religion and bogus science, but then turn and scream at
>anyone who dares to suggest that every nano pipe dream won't come
The accusation that nanotech dreamers reject all criticism without regard
to merit seems inconsistent with the respect that such dreamers give to
people who suggest nanotech is undesirable because of risks such as grey goo.
When dealing with the timing of nanotech rather than what is physically
possible, I think nanotech advocates are more vulnerable to criticism.
I think Drexler's claims about when the first assemblers will be available
(10 to 25 years) are reasonable, but I haven't heard a serious published
attempt to analyze how long it will take.
Drexler simply says he can't imagine how 20 years from now there could
be 20 years more work needed to produce an assembler. This doesn't convince
people who suspect he's a theoretician who doesn't know much about the
mundane details needed to translate theory into practice.
-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Peter McCluskey | Critmail (http://crit.org/critmail.html): http://www.rahul.net/pcm | Accept nothing less to archive your mailing list
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