Engines of Creation 2.0: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology

648 Pages·2006·4.27 MB·English

by  Drexler K.E.

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“Some seminal works stand out like beacons in the
history of science. Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis
Principia Mathematica and Watson and Crick’s
A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid come
quickly to mind. In recent decades we can add Eric
Drexler’s Engines of Creation, which established the
revolutionary new field of nanotechnology. In the
twenty years since this seminal work was published,
its premises and analyses have been confirmed and
we are starting to apply precise molecular assembly
to a wide variety of early applications from blood cell
sized devices that can target cancer cells to a new
generation of efficient solar panels. We can now see
clearly the roadmap over the next couple of decades
to the full realization of Drexler’s concept of the
inexpensive assembly of macroobjects constructed
at the nanoscale controlled by massively parallel
information processes, the fulfillment of which will
enable us to solve problems — energy, environmental
degradation, poverty, and disease to name a few —
that have plagued humankind for eons.”
— Ray Kurzweil
5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D
ENGINES OF CREATION 2.0
The Coming Era of Nanotechnology
20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
UPDATED AND EXPANDED
K. Eric Drexler
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Engines of Creation 2.0
K. Eric Drexler
Copyright © 2006 by K. Eric Drexler. All rights reserved.
No part of this ebook may be reproduced in any form without written permission of
the copyright owner.
The information in this book is furnished for informational use only, is subject to
change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by WOWIO
LLC. WOWIO LLC assumes no responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies that may
appear in this book.
“There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” by Richard Feynman originally published in
Engineering & Science, Volume 23, No. 5 (February 1960). Reprinted here with their
kind permission.
“Molecular Manufacturing: Perspectives on the Ultimate Limits of Fabrication” by
K. Eric Drexler originally published in Philosophical Transactions: Physical Sciences
and Engineering Volume 353 Issue 1703 (1995) pp321-331 and reprinted here
with their kind permission.
“The Drexler-Smalley Debate Introduction” by Rudy Baum originally published in
Chem. Eng. News, December 1, 2003, 81(48), 37. Copyright © 2003 American
Chemical Society. Reprinted here with their kind permission.
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Table of Contents
LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD by Marvin Minsky
PRELUDE There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom
by Richard Feynman

PART I THE FOUNDATIONS OF FORESIGHT
01 Engines of Construction
02 The Principles of Change
03 Predicting and Projecting
PART II PROFILES OF THE POSSIBLE
04 Engines of Abundance
05 Thinking Machines
06 The World Beyond Earth
07 Engines of Healing
08 Long Life in an Open World
09 A Door to the Future
10 The Limits to Growth
PART III DANGERS AND HOPES
11 Engines of Destruction
12 Strategies and Survival
13 Finding the Facts
14 The Network of Knowledge
15 Worlds Enough, and Time
POSTLUDE Advice to Aspiring Nanotechnologists
by K. Eric Drexler
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Table of Contents
APPENDICES
A Molecular Engineering: An Approach to the Development
of General Capabilities for Molecular Manipulation
B Molecular Manufacturing: Perspectives on the Ultimate
Limits of Fabrication
C The Drexler-Smalley Debate
i Introduction by Rudy Baum
ii An Open Letter to Richard Smalley
by K. Eric Drexler
iii Toward Closure: An Open Letter to Richard Smalley
by K. Eric Drexler
iv Response by Richard Smalley
v Counter by K. Eric Drexler
vi Final Response by Richard Smalley
vii Analysis of the Drexler-Smalley Debate
by Ray Kurzweil
GLOSSARY
NOTES AND REFERENCES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Letter from the Author
Twentieth Anniversary Edition
The vision I portrayed in Engines of Creation in 1986
inspired a generation of students to direct their careers
toward nanotechnology. Perhaps because it explores
consequences of physics and broad principles, rather
than tracking then-current technologies and trends,
Engines continues to sell briskly as a book on the future
of technology.
It would be difficult to understand where
nanotechnology is today without understanding how
we got here. Today’s pattern of research and opinion
bears the imprint of ideas in Engines of Creation,
in part directly, but in large part through reactions,
misconceptions, reactions to misconceptions, and the
peculiar dance of politics, technologies, and funding that
followed. I’d like to offer a sketch of this process
as it looked from my perspective, then a brief view
looking forward.
A Sketch of the History, 196–2006
Engines of Creation envisioned a new landscape of
future nanotechnologies, and within a few years of its
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Engines of Creation — Drexler
publication many regarded the term “nanotechnology”
as synonymous with the highest of high technologies.
Many researchers were already studying the science
and technology of nanoscale things (large molecules,
thin coatings, advanced transistors, small particles, thin
fibers, etc.) and they found that interest in their work
multiplied when they described it as “nanotechnology”.
Partly through relabeling, partly though new initiatives,
research in nanotechnologies became more coherent
and grew explosively. Conferences sprang up, and
companies, and government programs. Old fields
found fresh vigor, and new capabilities multiplied.
In 2001, the U.S. launched a multi-billion dollar
National Nanotechnology Initiative (the NNI), and
parallel efforts emerged across Europe and Asia,
where nanotechnologies were at a similar level. The
new nanotechnology establishment in government and
industry projected a trillion dollar market within ten
years. Critics reacted, warning that nanotechnology was
opening a “Pandora’s box”.
From a distance, it seemed that the vision presented
in Engines of Creation had broadened and grown,
inspiring leaders to direct vast resources toward
a revolution in manufacturing, toward developing
nanoscale machinery, guided by digital data, that
would join molecular building blocks to make products
with atomic precision and unprecedented capabilities.
A closer look showed a different reality: In the U.S.,
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Engines of Creation — Drexler
at least, molecular manufacturing became a taboo
subject for a decade. The cause was a reaction to a
public misconception that had gotten its start from a
misreading of Engines.
In Engines of Creation, I pictured molecular
manufacturing using “replicating assemblers” to build
things, including more machines like themselves. I
explained why sensibly designed machines of this sort
would use and require specially prepared materials and
be “useful but harmless”. Further study showed that this
approach would be needlessly complex and inefficient.
There is simply no need to build tiny self-replicating
machines. In a detailed, technical book, I described
and analyzed desktop-scale molecular manufacturing
systems that would be far simpler and more efficient.
(If you like math-intensive books, I recommend it:
Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing,
and Computation, Wiley/Interscience, 1992). But
meanwhile, the earlier ideas from Engines had spread
into popular culture — science fiction, movies, and
video games — and taken on a life of their own. The
ideas that spread fastest simplified, transmogrified, and
sensationalized. Soon, “nanotechnology” was all about
making so-called “nanobots” — self-replicating bug-like
things that could work miracles, but would inevitably run
amok, eat the world, and turn it into “gray goo”. And
these monster nanobugs were, of course, said to
be my idea.
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