I’m always staggered by the progress being made in nanoscience, with tens of billions of dollars of global funding our understanding of the nanoscale is progressing in leaps and bounds.
Perhaps more roadkill than tortoise to nanoscience’s hare is diamondoid mechanosynthesis, beloved of the Drexlerians, which doesn’t seem to have made any progress whatsoever, and increasingly resembles a cross between a south sea cargo cult and Waiting for Godot.
According to the Foresight Institute, “the diamondoid mechanosynthesis approach is only in the very early stages of computer simulation” whereas ten years ago it was being pushed as advanced technology.
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Tim,
You do know, I hope, that I severed my affiliation with the Foresight Institute several years ago? I wasn’t at that meeting last year.
Regarding diamondoid mechanosynthesis (and many other topics), “Drexlerians” do not speak for me. I’ve never suggested that such technologies were ripe for development, but have instead, from 1981 forward, consistently advocated a strong focus on biomolecular engineering. This is, of course, progressing well.
I say more about materials, development priorities, and mechanosynthesis in a series of posts on Metamodern.com. Here is the first:
http://metamodern.com/2008/12/27/toward-advanced-nanosystems-materials-1/
[...] Drexler just pinged me to point out that what I usually refer to as “Drexlerians” do not speak for him. It reminds me of [...]