Nanotechnology
 

I was cleaning out my desk and found some information I recieved from a lecture I attended at my university a while back. I read through it a little, and it was still on my mind as I was surfing the internet later, when ironically there was an article on cnn.com about the health risks of nanotechnology. It was this article that pushed me over the line to start this thread.

I am a microbiology major and I'm enrolled in the biotech cirriculum (which includes comp. science and engineering classes). I've been researching nanotechnology (commercial applications as well as medical/defense enhancements) since I started college and I've decided to take my career in that direction, but I often find myself a target because of this. I'm often reminded of the ethical and social considerations that must be taken into account. But if we look at humanity's history we find it is full of achievements and failures which could not have been recognized as such without taking risks.

Some are saying nanotech will bring about the end of the world, that it is risky to human health because nanomachines will be able to permeate the thinnest membranes. It has also been said that when applying nanotech to defense and military uses, it will start a new international arms race.

I'm interested to hear everyone's thoughts, so I'll leave at this to start some discussion.

Well, I'm always for the advent of new technology, and I see a LOT of benefit that could be gained from nanotechnology (particularily replicators, unfortunately that's a ways off... unless I'm more out of the loop than I thought). However... the ethical and social considerations are huge. A nano-weapon could easily get out of hand and cause more destruction than a nuclear weapon could ever dream of doing. Considering that they're reeling in nuclear weapons... I don't know why anyone would even want to think of making weapons with nanotechnology. It goes far beyond any power we could ever need... and could easily be uncontrollable. But, of course, people are power mongering and they will most likely order nano-weapons made.

The gains however are pretty much infinite as well. Think of having a colony of nano-machines in your body that automatically find damaged tissue and repair it, or which seek out viruses and foreign bacteria and disassemble them before they can do any harm. Disease and death may become nearly unknown.

I'd have to say it's worth the risk... but we have to be careful, because the risk is huge. Of course... the risk is so big, that I can understand some people wanting to reel this in and wait until people are less warlike, and more 'ready' for it.

Also: I've been out of the loop on nanotechnology for awhile, so if any of that is blatantly wrong or whatever, just tell me, VD.

I don't see how a medically good nanobot would bring about the end of the world...they seem to be well accepted in Ratchet and Clank...

But I'm against using them as weapons...there have been one too many action movies where the bad guy uses nano-bots to kill...

Almost any new technology can be turned into a weapon. Nanos are just newer. I did a big report on nanotechnology, and I believe that it would do wonders for this world. I mean, nature has been doing the same thing for millenias. It's just that she's been using proteins and enzymes.

<I don't know why anyone would even want to think of making weapons with nanotechnology. It goes far beyond any power we could ever need... and could easily be uncontrollable.>

I'm sure there are certain technologies that would only be developed if we used the nanos as weapons. Not necessarily saying we should, but there are gains from weapons research in nanotechnology, mainly more research in general.

Personally, I think before we use them as weapons, we should develop some way to protect against them. Defense Nanos?

Hell, with all the things you could do you could make a video game with just nanos.

But then I know near nothing about nanos in the first place. They still seem pretty cool, spiffy, and killographic, though.

Nanobots would be nearly useless for manufacturing. First of all, you've got the problem of communication: Remember that you're working with a machine built up molecule by molecule. Kinda tough to equip one of those things with any type of radio or other type of communications equipment, which would make coordination among the swarm of nanomachines nearly impossible. Then there's the problem of fuel. A nanomachine, like any other machine, needs a power source to operate. Having a few going around your body fighting bacteria wouldn't be much of a problem, since they can just hitch a ride on your bloodstream, but having them actually buld something would require an independant power source, and one tiny enough to fit on a nanomachine really wouldn't be good for much. Also, you have the problem of heat dissipation. Pretty much all energy that a machine uses gets converted into heat in the end, and a machine that size would heat up to the point of inoperability very quickly. There's a reason why small insects tend to keep to damp, dark, cool areas, and with a machine measured in nanometres the problem would be a hell of a lot worse. Finally, there's the fact that each nanomachine would only be able to transport an incredibly small amount of material at a time, and it quickly becomes apparent that nanomachines would be among the least practical means of manufacturing pretty much anything. Explain how. Nanomachines would have great difficulty surviving outside of a controlled environment, due to many of the problems I described earlier. They'd only really be useful if you could inject them directly into the enemy, in which case we already have plenty of poisons that would work just as well, if not better, and be a hell of a lot easier to make. Neither do I, considering what a waste of resources it would be. And then be promptly defeated. Repair it how? And with what? A nanomachine can't keep a supply of replacement cells handy, expescially considering that the typical cell measures in the micrometre range and would utterly dwarf any nanomachine. That might be feasable, but I still wonder how effective they'd be when compared to more conventional methods. I'm not even going to touch that one. If we always waited until we were "ready" before we brought about the next technological advancement, we'd still be banging rocks togeather. Human nature has remained pretty much consistant throughout all of recorded history. We've always been a violent and warlike race, yet, somehow, we managed to survive this long. Probably because we're not idiots (at least compared to other forms of life on Earth.)

Well if we DO use the little guys for military purposes, we should at least develop the defensive side first...

But I'm still waiting for the R&C days where if we get hurt, we just pour some nanos over ourselves and sit back as they heal everything...

yea, nanotech in my opinion is defitalely a good thing to do. you can with the right tools get them to perform all types of jobs such as repairing damagedtissue, or destroying dangerous cells (cancer). as for them being a weapon, why bother? we can easily kill as many people as we want with all our nukes stockpiled, so having nanos would be way overkill. but then again, you always need new and exciting weapons to keep the defense budget going i guess.

To DI: You're even more out of the loop than I am. Nano-weapons could be dispensed easily through the air, they're so light weight that they would move more easily than most viruses, and could exit the body/contaminate others in the same way... as well as being more deadly, and existing on dead bodies. Of course they can also be designed to infect any carbon based anything... pulling carbon atoms out... which would destroy any living creature thing that touched them. It would take a lot of them to kill someone, but considering they're made out of just a few atoms... they could rather easily make more of themselves out of living tissue, thus destroying any living thing as well as replicating themselves. That's the whole premise behind nano-weaponry which has some EXPERTS pondering whether they are worth the risks.

This site addresses some of those risks:
http://www.cla.sc.edu/cpecs/nirt/nirt200112/nirt3.html


As for the building new materials/repairing human cells... well they would move atoms around and BUILD the cells, they wouldn't carry them around.

here: http://www.zyvex.com/nano/
http://www.nano.org.uk/nano.htm


Does finding that stuff to disprove DI make me in the loop again?

I Dont even want to think about nanotech stuff, it scares the crap out of me.

Im sure when weer old a grand kid will be all like "grandpa I broke my spleen! oh its better now." and we will be all like " back in my day when we broke something we had to get cut open and fixed by some doctor. but first we had to walk up hill, ten miles! In the snow!"