 |
|
|
|
|
|
Join the conversation at CRNtalk!
|
CRN Publications "All truth
passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently
opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
At CRN, we feel a powerful sense of urgency. We are convinced that our work is vitally important and uniquely necessary. But not everyone agrees with us. Typical objections are: "What's the big deal? Isn't all this stuff decades, or even centuries, away? And anyway, aren't you over-dramatizing the effects of this technology? Why are you trying to scare people?" CRN is constantly involved in researching and publishing our ideas. The questions above—and many more—are being addressed, and, we believe, convincingly answered. CRN BRIEFING DOCUMENTS
LIST OF PAPERS, WITH ABSTRACTS
(in alphabetical order) Accurately Describing a
Technology That Does Not Yet Exist - published
March 2004 Applying the Precautionary Principle to Nanotechnology - published January 2003, revised December 2003
ABSTRACT: The development of
general-purpose molecular manufacturing through nanotechnology carries numerous risks, including the production of potentially unhealthy
nanoparticles, the possible creation of tiny, destructive, self-replicating
robots, and many others. The Precautionary Principle is often invoked when
dealing with situations that might be hazardous; however, the label
"Precautionary Principle" is attached to at least two different ideas, which
must be analyzed separately. This paper discusses two forms of the
Precautionary Principle, which we will call the "strict form" and the
"active form", and relates them to the purpose of the Center for Responsible
Nanotechnology, and to CRN's policy recommendations. Bridges to Safety, and Bridges
to Progress
- presented at the November 2004
International Congress of
Nanotechnology
ABSTRACT: Advanced nanotechnology
offers unprecedented opportunities for progress—defeating poverty, starvation,
and disease, opening up outer space, and expanding human capacities. But it
also brings unprecedented risks—massive job displacement causing economic and
social disruption, threats to civil liberties from ubiquitous surveillance,
and the specter of devastating wars fought with far more powerful weapons of
mass destruction. The challenge of achieving the goals and managing the risks
of nanotechnology requires more than just brilliant molecular engineering. In
addition to scientific and technical ingenuity, other disciplines and talents
will be vitally important. No single approach will solve all problems or
address all needs. The only answer is a collective answer, and that will
demand an unprecedented collaboration—a network of leaders in business,
government, academia, and NGOs. It will require participation from people of
many nations, cultures, languages, and belief systems. Never before have we
faced such a tremendous opportunity—and never before have the risks been so
great. We must begin building bridges that will lead to safety and progress
for the entire world; bridges that will develop common understanding, create
lines of communication, and create a stable structure that will enable
humankind to pass safely through the transition into the nano era.
Challenges and Pitfalls of
Exponential Manufacturing - originally published as a chapter in
Nanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology,
edited by Allhof, Lin, Moor, Weckert (2007, John Wiley & Sons)
ABSTRACT: This paper explains
exponential general-purpose molecular manufacturing, the basic concepts
behind it, and why it will be a technological breakthrough of transformative
power. We show why preparing for it is vitally important—and will be very
difficult. Along the way, we explore how several types of social systems may
respond to the changes that molecular manufacturing will bring, including
unprecedented material abundance and other opportunities. We take a brief
look at the possible timeline (sooner than many people will expect), explore
problems in familiar areas such as military conflict, and touch on new
classes of problems that humanity will have to face. By the end, it should
be clear that the challenges and opportunities created by molecular
manufacturing cannot be addressed by any simple solution.
Design of a
Primitive Nanofactory - published October 2003 in the
Journal of Evolution and Technology (85 pages)
ABSTRACT: Some theorists expect that
molecular manufacturing will cause a sudden, rapid advance in our ability to
design and build nanotech products. Others argue that each product will
require significant debugging, so that products will arrive in a stream
rather than a flood, even after the first self-duplicating assembler is
built. This paper will describe the mechanisms and processes required to
bootstrap a macro-scale, programmable nanofactory from a single
self-contained assembler. Nanofactory structure, power requirements and
thermodynamic efficiency, control of mechanochemistry, reliability in the
face of radiation damage, convergent assembly processes including joint
mechanisms, product design, and bootstrapping steps are discussed in detail.
Bridging the gap between the first assembler and the flood of nanotech
products can probably be accomplished in a matter of weeks.
(EXTENDED
SUMMARY)
Developing Molecular
Manufacturing
- published March 2005
ABSTRACT: Any of several diverse
pathways might be used to develop molecular manufacturing. There are many
strategies, techniques, and tools that may contribute to its development. Further study will be
needed to decide which approach is best. Questions to be answered for
each approach include effort required to develop it, performance (throughput
and cost) of the manufacturing system, performance of the products. Three
milestones can be identified for molecular manufacturing: 1) Basic
molecular manufacturing—digital control of precise molecular assembly;
2) Exponential molecular manufacturing—the ability to use molecular
manufacturing systems to build additional usable molecular manufacturing
systems, making it possible to produce large quantities of product; 3)
Integrated molecular manufacturing—the ability to combine outputs of
molecular manufacturing into large products. After exploration of the range of
options for developing these capabilities, several specific areas for study
are suggested. These studies, which could be initiated today, would help to
quantify the potential of the technology and the effort required to develop
that potential.
Invited Commentary on Royal Society Nanotechnology Workshop -
published December 2003
Large-Product General-Purpose Design and Manufacturing
Using Nanoscale Modules - report to NASA's Institute for Advanced
Concepts, presented May 2005
ABSTRACT: The goal of molecular
manufacturing is to build engineerable high-performance products of all
sizes, rapidly and inexpensively, with nanoscale features and atomic
precision. Molecular manufacturing is the only branch of nanotechnology that
intends to combine kilogram-scale products, atomic precision, and engineered
programmable structure at all scales. It is no coincidence that molecular
manufacturing has gone far beyond other branches of nanotechnology in
investigating productive nanosystems, because high-performance nanoscale
manufacturing systems are the only way that these goals can be achieved.
Building such a product appears to require direct computer control of very
small operations. In other words, it needs programmable manufacturing
systems capable of acting at the nanoscale. The core of this project is
planar assembly: the construction of products by deposition of functional
blocks one layer at a time. Planar assembly is a new development in
molecular manufacturing theory. It is based on the realization that
sub-micron nano-featured blocks are quite convenient for product design as
well as manipulation within the nanofactory construction components, and can
be deposited quite quickly due to favorable scaling laws. The development of
planar assembly theory, combined with recent advances in molecular
fabrication and synthesis, indicate that it may be time to start a targeted
program to develop molecular manufacturing. Molecular
Manufacturing: Start Planning - originally published August 2003 in
the
Journal of the Federation of American Scientists
ABSTRACT:
Despite claims to the contrary, molecular
nanotechnology manufacturing is coming soon. Because it will be so useful,
there will be strong pressure to develop it as soon as possible, and past a
certain point it could happen quite rapidly. Macro-scale integrated nanotech
manufacturing systems will improve product functionality, product design
time and manufacturing speed and cost by orders of magnitude. This advance
may profoundly affect economics and geopolitics, creating enormous benefits
and risks. It will be difficult to prepare adequately for such a powerful
technology. For all these reasons, molecular nanotechnology should be a
current topic in high-level policy and planning.
Molecular
Manufacturing: What, Why and How (links to Wise-Nano.org) - published
May 2005
ABSTRACT: Molecular manufacturing
emphasizes the use of precise, engineered, computer-controlled, nanoscale
tools to construct vast numbers of improved tools as well as products with
vast numbers of precise, engineered nanoscale features. It has not been clear
how to design and build the first nanoscale tools to start the process of
scaleup and improvement, or how easily the operation of many advanced tools
could be coordinated. This paper develops a roadmap from today's capabilities
to advanced molecular manufacturing systems. A number of design principles and
useful techniques for molecular construction via nanoscale machines are
discussed. Two approaches are presented to build the first tools with current
technology. Incremental improvement from the first tools toward advanced
integrated "nanofactories" is explored. A scalable architecture for an
advanced nanofactory is analyzed. The performance of advanced products, and
some likely applications, are discussed. Finally, considerations and
recommendations for a targeted development program are presented.
Nanotechnology and Future WMD - published December 2006 ABSTRACT: Although most forms of
nanotechnology do not pose unfamiliar risks, one advanced field – molecular
manufacturing – may present a source of extreme risk due to the implications of
the power of its products. Molecular manufacturing will benefit from multiple
advantages that other technologies, including earlier generation
nanotechnologies, do not possess. Work toward this form of manufacturing is
still in formative stages, but development could rapidly become easier, and it
may be achieved with surprising speed once a few basic capabilities are
attained. Rapid, inexpensive, large-scale manufacture of highly advanced
products may have several unfortunate consequences, including new classes of
WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), unstable arms races, environmental impacts,
destructively enabled individuals, social upheaval, and oppressive governance.
However, the technology is dual-use and also may be highly beneficial. For this
and other reasons, patchwork policy solutions will be counterproductive.
Of Chemistry, Nanobots, and Policy -
published December 2003
ABSTRACT: The ability to build
products by molecular manufacturing would create a radical improvement in
the manufacture of technologically advanced products. Everything from
computers to weapons to consumer goods, and even desktop factories, would
become incredibly cheap and easy to build. If this is possible, the policy
implications are enormous. Richard Smalley, a prominent nanotechnologist,
has tried for several years to debunk this possibility. Most recently, he
participated in a published exchange with Eric Drexler, another prominent
nanotechnologist, who has been the primary proponent and theorist of
molecular manufacturing. This paper examines the arguments presented by each
side and concludes that Smalley has failed to support his opinion that MNT
cannot work as Drexler asserts.
Projected Environmental Impacts of Molecular Manufacturing - published
December 2003
Safe
Exponential Manufacturing - published in the August 2004 issue of the Institute of Physics journal
Nanotechnology Chris Phoenix and Eric Drexler,
"Safe Exponential Manufacturing", Nanotechnology 15 (August 2004) 869-872.
Nanotechnology © Copyright 2004 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Safe Utilization of Advanced Nanotechnology
- published January 2003, revised December 2003
(12 pages)
ABSTRACT: Many words have been
written about the dangers of advanced nanotechnology. Most of the
threatening scenarios involve tiny manufacturing systems that run amok, or
are used to create destructive products. A manufacturing infrastructure
built around a centrally controlled, relatively large, self-contained
manufacturing system would avoid these problems. A controlled nanofactory
would pose no inherent danger, and it could be deployed and used widely.
Cheap, clean, convenient, on-site manufacturing would be possible without
the risks associated with uncontrolled nanotech fabrication or excessive
regulation. Control of the products could be administered by a central
authority; intellectual property rights could be respected. In addition,
restricted design software could allow unrestricted innovation while
limiting the capabilities of the final products. The proposed solution
appears to preserve the benefits of advanced nanotechnology while minimizing
the most serious risks.
Technical Commentary
on Greenpeace Nanotechnology Report - published September 2003
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this document is to augment a
portion of the August 2003
Greenpeace report on nanotechnology and artificial intelligence and to
comment on a few specific statements in it. That report's treatment of
molecular nanotechnology (MNT) was necessarily brief and did not cover
several key areas. The present document supplements Greenpeace's work,
explores further some of the misconceptions of MNT, and describes one area
within MNT, limited molecular nanotechnology (LMNT), which is currently
being pursued by most MNT researchers. LMNT can produce most of the desired
medical devices, advanced materials, and product innovation goals sought
after today and will be significantly easier to achieve. CRN believes that
recent advances in LMNT research should underscore to policy makers the
urgent need for discussion of possible consequences, both positive and
negative.
Thirty Essential Studies -
published May 2004 (73 pages)
ABSTRACT:
These 30
studies are organized in several sections. The first section covers the
fundamental theory: insights that may be counterintuitive or unobvious and
need explanation, but that can be double-checked by simple thought. The
second section addresses technological capabilities of possible molecular
manufacturing technologies. The third section addresses 'bootstrapping'—the
development of the first self-contained molecular manufacturing system
(which will then be able to produce duplicates at an exponential rate),
including schedule considerations. The fourth section explores the
capabilities of products, building toward the fifth section, which raises
urgent questions about policies and policymaking. The overall objective is
to acquire a preliminary but comprehensive understanding of all significant
issues related to molecular manufacturing, in preparation for its possible
development within the next ten years.
Three Systems of Action: A Proposed Application for
Effective Administration of Molecular Nanotechnology - presented at
the October 2003
Discovering the Nanoscale conference in Darmstadt, Germany (22
pages)
ABSTRACT: Within the next few decades, and perhaps sooner, a
new type of manufacturing will be made possible by molecular nanotechnology
(MNT). Considering its enormous potential for profound economic,
environmental, social, and military impacts, MNT has received insufficient
attention in ethical and policy discussions. The first section of this paper
provides a brief introduction to MNT, in order to establish the need for
increased policy attention. The second section describes three different
approaches to policymaking, each based on a different system of action, or
set of principles, used for solving various kinds of problems. The third section demonstrates that MNT,
as a flexible “general purpose technology”, will require a flexible approach
to policymaking that encompasses all three systems of action. The fourth
section presents specific recommendations and possibilities for
accomplishing this difficult balance between incompatible policy styles.
To pay by check, please send a note with your mailing address and the title
of the paper you are ordering, along with full payment for the paper and
shipping costs, to:
Center for Responsible Nanotechnology Thank you! |
Copyright © 2002-2008 Center for Responsible Nanotechnology TM CRN was an affiliate of World Care®, an international, non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization.
|
