Nanotechnolgy...

[Steezie]

Nanotechnology is a technology which I believe is the answer to many of the prayers of mankind.

It will allow us to literally change matter at its most basic level and turn something un-wanted into something wanted. Imagine pouring out a canister of nanopaste (A goo made up of trillions of nanobots) onto a landfill and transforming that landfill into piles of steel girders or raw paper.

Medically, nanotechnology would allow us to conquer and combat almost any disease known to mankind by working inside our bodies to keep them clean and healthy.

This is what nanotechnology would look like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEYN18d7gHg


My question is this, when we achieve this technology, what changes will society undergo? How will we as a country, as a planet, change?

 

[trunks2k]

But watch out for Grey Goo

 

[MoonlessNight]

It will allow us to literally change matter at its most basic level and turn something un-wanted into something wanted. Imagine pouring out a canister of nanopaste (A goo made up of trillions of nanobots) onto a landfill and transforming that landfill into piles of steel girders or raw paper.

Is this really simple at all? It seems to me to do this to a whole landfill you'd really have to work at the atomic level, and the level of precision there is so high, even if your machines are really small.

Medically, nanotechnology would allow us to conquer and combat almost any disease known to mankind by working inside our bodies to keep them clean and healthy.

This seems even less likely. How do you program an AI for these things (and it would have to be distributed or controlled by a larger outside computer since they are so small) that accurately destroys all bacteria that is harmful to us but doesn't accidentally kill our own cells? The problem gets worse when you consider things like cancer which essentially IS our own cells.

I don't have any problems with nanotechnology per se, but I am extremely skeptical of the claims that people give to it. It can essentially do anything if you want it to badly enough.

I suppose it's like how electricity used to be viewed (when there was question over whether that experiment with electricity created life, or whether it could restore life), or how genetic engineering still is viewed to some extent (you can reprogram your genes to get any ability or cure any disease. Except that you can't.)