FC: Eric Drexler on nanotechnology warnings, "nightmare dreams"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[A little late but worth it. --DBM]

---

http://www.foresight.org/NanoRev/Letter.html

              Drexler writes Smalley open letter on assemblers

                     Posted on Nanodot, April 20, 2003

   Foresight Chairman K. Eric Drexler has sent Nobel laureate Richard
   Smalley an open letter to rebut Smalley's statements that molecular
   assemblers are not possible. The letter was also sent directly to
   several dozen leading researchers, decision makers, and journalists in
   the field. Reportedly Prof. Smalley has promised a response.

    Drexler wrote to Smalley:

     Prof. Smalley:

     I have written this open letter to correct your public
     misrepresentation of my work.

     As you know, I introduced the term "nanotechnology" in the
     mid-1980s to describe advanced capabilities based on molecular
     assemblers: proposed devices able to guide chemical reactions by
     positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision. Since
     "nanotechnology" is now used label diverse current activities, I
     have attempted to minimize confusion by relabelling the longer term
     goal "molecular manufacturing". The consequences of molecular
     manufacturing are widely understood to be enormous, posing
     opportunities and dangers of first-rank importance to the long-term
     security of the United States and the world. Theoretical studies of
     its implementation and capabilities are therefore of more than
     academic interest, and are akin to pre-Sputnik studies of
     spaceflight, or to pre-Manhattan-Project calculations regarding
     nuclear chain reactions.

     You have attempted to dismiss my work in this field by
     misrepresenting it. From what I hear of a press conference at the
     recent NNI conference, you continue to do so. In particular, you
     have described molecular assemblers as having multiple "fingers"
     that manipulate individual atoms and suffer from so-called "fat
     finger" and "sticky finger" problems, and you have dismissed their
     feasibility on this basis [1]. I find this puzzling because, like
     enzymes and ribosomes, proposed assemblers neither have nor need
     these "Smalley fingers" [2]. The task of positioning reactive
     molecules simply doesn't require them.

     I have a twenty year history of technical publications in this area
     [3 - 12] and consistently describe systems quite unlike the straw
     man you attack. My proposal is, and always has been, to guide the
     chemical synthesis of complex structures by mechanically
     positioning reactive molecules, not by manipulating individual
     atoms. This proposal has been defended successfully again and
     again, in journal articles, in my MIT doctoral thesis, and before
     scientific audiences around the world. It rests on well-established

     The impossibility of "Smalley fingers" has raised no concern in the
     research community because these fingers solve no problems and thus
     appear in no proposals. Your reliance on this straw-man attack
     might lead a thoughtful observer to suspect that no one has
     identified a valid criticism of my work. For this I should,
     perhaps, thank you.

     You apparently fear that my warnings of long-term dangers [13] will
     hinder funding of current research, stating that "We should not let
     this fuzzy-minded nightmare dream scare us away from
     nanotechnology....NNI should go forward" [14]. However, I have from
     the beginning argued that the potential for abuse of advanced
     nanotechnologies makes vigorous research by the U.S and its allies
     imperative [13]. Many have found these arguments persuasive. In an
     open discussion, I believe they will prevail. In contrast, your
     attempt to calm the public through false claims of impossibility
     will inevitably fail, placing your colleagues at risk of a
     destructive backlash.

     Your misdirected arguments have needlessly confused public
     discussion of genuine long-term security concerns. If you value the
     accuracy of information used in decisions of importance to national
     and global security, I urge you to seek some way to help set the
     record straight. Endorsing calls for an independent scientific
     review of molecular manufacturing concepts [15] would be
     constructive.

     A scientist whose research I respect has observed that "when a
     scientist says something is possible, they're probably
     underestimating how long it will take. But if they say it's
     impossible, they're probably wrong." The scientist quoted is, of
     course, yourself [16].

     K. Eric Drexler Chairman, Foresight Institute

     ----------------------------

     1. Smalley, R. E. (2001) Of chemistry, love and nanobots - How soon
     will we see the nanometer-scale robots envisaged by K. Eric Drexler
     and other molecular nanotechologists? The simple answer is never.
     Scientific American, September, 68-69.
     http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~smalleyg/rick's%20publications/SA285-76.pd
     f

     2. Drexler, K. E., D. Forrest, R. A. Freitas Jr., J. S. Hall, N.
     Jacobstein, T. McKendree, R. Merkle, C. Peterson (2001) A Debate
     About Assemblers. http://www.imm.org/SciAmDebate2/smalley.html.

     3. Drexler, K. E. (1981) Molecular engineering: An approach to the
     development of general capabilities for molecular manipulation.
     Proc. Natnl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.. 78:5275-5278.
     http://www.imm.org/PNAS.html

     4. Drexler, K. E. (1987) Nanomachinery: Atomically precise gears
     and bearings. IEEE Micro Robots and Teleoperators Workshop.
     Hyannis, Massachusetts: IEEE.

     5. Drexler, K. E., and J. S. Foster. (1990) Synthetic tips. Nature.
     343:600.

     6. Drexler, K. E. (1991) Molecular tip arrays for molecular imaging
     and nanofabrication. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology-B.
     9:1394-1397.

     7. Drexler K. E., (1991) Molecular Machinery and Manufacturing with
     Applications to Computation. MIT doctoral thesis.

     8. Drexler, K. E. (1992) Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery,
     Manufacturing, and Computation. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
     http://www.foresight.org/NanoRev/Bookstore.html#anchor1025139

     9. Drexler, K. E. (1992) Molecular Directions in Nanotechnology.
     Nanotechnology (2:113).

     10. Drexler, K. E. (1994) Molecular machines: physical principles
     and implementation strategies. Annual Review of Biophysics and
     Biomolecular Structure (23:337-405).

     11. Drexler, K. E. (1995) Molecular manufacturing: perspectives on
     the ultimate limits of fabrication. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London A
     (353:323-331).

     12. Drexler, K. E. (1999) Building molecular machine systems.
     Trends in Biotechnology, 17: 5-7.
     http://www.imm.org/Reports/Rep008.html

     13. Drexler, K. E. (1986) Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of
     Nanotechnology. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday.
     http://www.foresight.org/EOC/index.html

     14. Smalley, R. E. (2000) quoted in: W. Schulz, Crafting A National
     Nanotechnology Effort. Chemical & Engineering News, October 16.
     http://pubs.acs.org/cen/nanotechnology/7842/7842government.html

     15. Peterson, C. L. Testimony before the Committee on Science, U.S.
     House of Representatives, 9 April 2003.
     http://www.house.gov/science/hearings/full03/apr09/peterson.htm

     16. Smalley, R. E. (2000) quoted in N. Thompson, Downsizing:
     Nanotechnology---Why you should sweat the small stuff . The
     Washington Monthly Online, October.
     http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2000/0010.thompson.html




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