Nanotechnology.
For this post, I'd like to provide a bit of history behind nanotechnology.
In 1959, a physicist named Richard Feynman gave a lecture entitled "There's Plenty Room at the Bottom" at CalTech; this lecture was considered a seminal moment in the history of nanotechnology as new concepts and terms were formed for the upcoming scientific study. So, through his breakthrough ideas, Feynman proposed an overview of manufacturing techniques at the nanometre (1 billionth of a metre) scale; he went on to predict that in about three decades the microchip industry would develop transistors within 10 to 20nm in size and will fit billions of these on a single silicon substrate. Feynman was right. As evident with common place devices such as our smartphones, glasses, and watches the electronics industry (and other sectors such as biofuels) has taken full advantage of the nano scale manufacturing process.
A few decades after Feynman's lecture, in 1986, a book titled "Engines of Creation" was published, the author was an MIT Engineer named Eric Drexler; in the book Drexler expanded on Feynman's ideas and theorized an extension of manufacturing at the nanoscale. One concept that stood out (currently pursued even today by researchers worldwide such as University of Manchester) was the molecular assembler. Drexler presented the idea of an automated-factory at the atomic scale. This hypothetical machine would be built at the nanometre level using aligned atoms to create components of a robot that would, essentially, be capable of moving atoms to form new molecules and therefore new matter.
Just imagine a bacteria sized machine cutting up molecules from a piece of wood and moving its atoms to form a new carbon material that, when assembled, is stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum - this was basically the idea behind the molecular assembler. Although Drexler is still a strong advocate of the benefits nanotechnology, he is slowly trying to decouple science fiction formed fantasies of robotic machinery and manufacturing with its underlying practical principles. To this day Drexler provides insightful lectures, coining the term "atomically precise manufacturing" to further delineate nanotechnology's classification and discuss its practical applications at the academic and corporate level.
On a personal level, I'm completed fascinated with this new engineering discipline. I firmly believe that an advanced form of this technology could potentially disrupt the economy and the future of supply and demand. Simply put, nanotechnology has the potential to change the way we make and use things and give almost infinite abundance of power to anyone to make anything out of everything. Granting people with the power to control matter at an atomic scale is an amazing, novel idea.
The "nano revolution" is somewhat public knowledge, in the US for example, an nano research initiative NNI launched by then president Bill Clinton, is focused on providing research and education to US citizens about the applications of nanotechnology. In Canada, the University of Waterloo developed its own Nanotechnology degree program and state of the art facility with research efforts probing the world at the atomic level. Numerous documentaries have been filmed and literature written about the topic. It is an interesting thing to talk about as it is suggested to be the first of defining technologies to pave way for the revolutionary epoch that is to come. The New Machine Age is upon us and nanotechnology is its harbinger.
In 1959, a physicist named Richard Feynman gave a lecture entitled "There's Plenty Room at the Bottom" at CalTech; this lecture was considered a seminal moment in the history of nanotechnology as new concepts and terms were formed for the upcoming scientific study. So, through his breakthrough ideas, Feynman proposed an overview of manufacturing techniques at the nanometre (1 billionth of a metre) scale; he went on to predict that in about three decades the microchip industry would develop transistors within 10 to 20nm in size and will fit billions of these on a single silicon substrate. Feynman was right. As evident with common place devices such as our smartphones, glasses, and watches the electronics industry (and other sectors such as biofuels) has taken full advantage of the nano scale manufacturing process.
A few decades after Feynman's lecture, in 1986, a book titled "Engines of Creation" was published, the author was an MIT Engineer named Eric Drexler; in the book Drexler expanded on Feynman's ideas and theorized an extension of manufacturing at the nanoscale. One concept that stood out (currently pursued even today by researchers worldwide such as University of Manchester) was the molecular assembler. Drexler presented the idea of an automated-factory at the atomic scale. This hypothetical machine would be built at the nanometre level using aligned atoms to create components of a robot that would, essentially, be capable of moving atoms to form new molecules and therefore new matter.
On a personal level, I'm completed fascinated with this new engineering discipline. I firmly believe that an advanced form of this technology could potentially disrupt the economy and the future of supply and demand. Simply put, nanotechnology has the potential to change the way we make and use things and give almost infinite abundance of power to anyone to make anything out of everything. Granting people with the power to control matter at an atomic scale is an amazing, novel idea.
The "nano revolution" is somewhat public knowledge, in the US for example, an nano research initiative NNI launched by then president Bill Clinton, is focused on providing research and education to US citizens about the applications of nanotechnology. In Canada, the University of Waterloo developed its own Nanotechnology degree program and state of the art facility with research efforts probing the world at the atomic level. Numerous documentaries have been filmed and literature written about the topic. It is an interesting thing to talk about as it is suggested to be the first of defining technologies to pave way for the revolutionary epoch that is to come. The New Machine Age is upon us and nanotechnology is its harbinger.
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