Nanotechnology – Should We Worry?

Nanotechnology shows a lot of promise, but should we be concerned about letting another genie out of the bottle? Read the article below for Robert Freer’s concerns.

By Robert E. Freer, Jr., President of The Free Enterprise Foundation

“So,” I said, “What you are telling me is this swarm reproduces, is self-sustaining, learns from experience, has collective intelligence, and can innovate to solve problems? “Yes” Michael Creighton from Prey, his number one blockbuster about technology run amok.

As a rule, I tend to be optimistic about society and its potential for generational progress. Yet the pace of technology convergence and the pall mall introduction of one stunning development after another has me yearning for the simpler age of my childhood. Somehow with the passage of our society from 12 inch black and white television and coaster brakes on my gearless bicycle to the 21st Century where we spring a new technology on the public just as soon as we figure out how to program yesterday’s new convenience, our innovative nature has pushed us to the brink of the abyss.

Dr. Michael Creighton, truly one of the most creative minds of our age, has unhinged me with Prey. In his story of nanotechnology unleashed, he envisions a world where research and adaptation of creation at the molecular level results in a blurring of the lines between life and machine, a reality in which the molecules themselves become the builders, develop self awareness, the ability to adapt, to defend themselves, merge with human organisms and ultimately to kill. So what is this technology that has frightened me? Well. It is the understanding and manipulation of matter at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; this paper is on the order of one hundred thousand nanometers thick to give you a tool of reference.

Nanotechnology is the new “it” technology with so much promise that President Clinton in 2000 asked for a 227 million dollar increase in the government’s investment in nanotechnology research and development including a new scientific initiative called the National Nanotechnology Initiative. In 2003 the U.S. Military reportedly spent over one billion dollars on nanotechnology and one medical authority suggests it could catch cancer before it spreads. Other authorities see it creating the stronger fibers for the space elevator I wrote about a few months ago and to eventually be able to replicate anything including “diamonds, water and food. Famine could be eradicated by machines that fabricate foods”… at the molecular level.

In the medical industry “….[p]atients will drink fluids containing nanorobots programmed to attack and reconstruct the molecular structure of cancer cells and viruses to make them harmless.” The same commentator also sees them slowing the aging process, performing delicate surgeries and even being programmed to change your physical appearance. Contaminants could also be removed from the environment and nanomachines programmed to replace nonrenewable resources. To most researchers, my examples are only “teasers “of a future unimagined a few years ago.”

Jeff Harrow of the Harrow Technology Report puts it this way. “The bottom line is we can only barely imagine the changes to come…. Few saw the potential [of many of our recent advancements.] Yet the potential from nanotechnology could make those historical watersheds look like a drop in the lake.” But is it the bright future of its adherents or the Pandora’s Box envisioned in the introduction to Prey? Creighton notes, “Sometime in the twenty-first century our self deluded recklessness will collide with our growing technological power. One area where this will occur is in the meeting point of nanotechnology, biotechnology and computer technology. What all three have in common is the ability to release self replicating entities into the environment”. Once a thought is communicated it is set free for all time.

I am not so unrealistic to think that man will retreat from the full exploitation of this new technology, but the fork in the road is more clearly before us than anytime since the explosion of the atomic bomb as to man’s ability to control those whose thirst for power blinds them to mankind’s danger from their pursuits. What is being set before us is a question of man’s ability to transcend his moral weakness and grow to meet the responsible use of the power his mind has unleashed. Just because we can do something is no reason to do it. Are we capable of responsibly controlling our appetites? Can we establish an effective ethical code of behavior for scientific exploitation? Viewed in this light, civilization’s war with militant, religious zealots determined to force their world view on the rest of us is not encouraging for mankind’s ability to survive the challenge presented by the gifts from our intellect. The twenty-first century, most of all, needs to be the Ethical Century. Man must learn to value not only those who can invent wondrous technology but also those who can show us the way to an effective world consensus on effective humanistic ethics or we will surely not survive the century.

Copyright © 2007 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr. is President of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor, at The Citadel and elected in 2005 to be their first John S. Grinalds Leader in Residence. A regular contributor to the Mercury, He can be reached by E-mail at The Citadel . Copies of his earlier columns can be found The Free Enterprise Foundation.

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