Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

In Radical Abundance Drexler offers an approach to the specification of a roadmap for the achievement of atomically precise manufacturing (APM). Key to the specification of a roadmap are intellectual tools to distinguish between science and engineering as well as types of engineering - exploratory engineering, systems engineering, etc. he points out that engineering approaches have not been applied to the nanotechnology field so a roadmap cannot emerge. On one level the book is an argument for the development of an APM roadmap and how this can be accomplished. Drexler outlines the historical evolution of nanotechnology from the coining of the term in his first book Engines of Creation published in 1986 to the subsequent confusion of the definition of nanotechnology through the politics of funding the multibillion dollar National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). Initially, NNI was funded to address atomically precise manufacturing, but by 2004 all reference to atomically precise manufacturing (APM) was removed from the NNI strategic plan and replaced instead by a concentration on phenomena at the nanoscale. Drexler argues pursuasively that this misdirection of NNI cost the US and the countries that followed the US lead considerable progress through a misallocation of large research funding. Merely concentrating on the size of phenomena offers no tools for exploratory engineering to define how to actually build things atom by atom with atomic precision as is done through the biological processes pointed to by Drexler. Drexler also points to the considerable progress that his been made towards APM and draws conclusions that the nanotechnology revolution is getting underway and that nanotechnology will effect disruptive change in production of most products. This will create great opportunity, but will also create disruptive change globally. This book is a must read for those already involved in nanottechnology - the entrepreneurs, scientists and venture capitals investing their time and resources to make a new world possible. The book is also important for decision makers at all levels in government, industry and education and research. APM is not a fantasy. APM is possible and APM will transform the world. What must be initiated now to get ready?

I think the book did a excellent job of clarifying what APM is and the amazing changes that it can bring. It does a good job of explaining what went wrong in nanotechnology focus to date and a fair job making clear the difference between science and engineering, especially exploratory engineering. I did find the book rather meandering. It seems to be part of the author's style to continuously loop or spiral points with much repetition. At times this felt a bit disjointed to me. What I think is the most serious gap in the book is that there is not a clear roadmap. One gets ideas of how we may go from the nanoscale engineering and products of today to full APM. But the steps along the way are not specified. I would very much love to see such a roadmap or a set of plausible roadmaps to full APM. I would love to see the answer to what the Eric Drexler himself would set out as a roadmap if he was funded with a billion dollars or two. This would be much more likely to gain traction for APM in my opinion. The only other problem I had with the book was that I remember Engines of Creation quite well and I spent some years as an associated of the Foresight Institute. Back in the day a lot of the talk among even those in the know including if memory services, Eric himself, in fact was about nanobots which he disparages as "nanobugs". While I understand the high importance of focusing on APM this felt a bit jarring.

Eric Drexler does the world a favor by clarifying many misconceptions that have arisen over the decades around the notion of Nanotechnology.He clarifies the distinction between engineering and science, and the need to focus on engineering while continuing to work with scientists. The problem as Dr. Drexler points out, is that we need to start working toward real-world working solutions. While scientists are good at filling in the blanks where knowledge is concerned, they don't usually spend much time on how to apply that knowledge. Engineers are need to apply the knowledge learned to actually realize APM (Atomically Precise Manufacturing). What Dr. Drexler does not do, is try and predict all the cool things we could build with this technology. Rather, he leaves that to a future market that will drive demand. In the past, making such statements have only led to problems. When he talked previously about tiny machines, other authors took this concept and envisioned tiny robots, and then suddenly the robots could consume the earth and create a planet of grey goo. Drexler sees a very different vision, not of tiny robots, but of macro goods, big stuff, made an atom at a time with whole new properties. Materials that are much stronger that steel with only a fraction of the weight. Electronic circuits that are built into every device or part to monitor it's state, alter it's own properties when required, or simply enhance it's functionality. He very carefully tries to couch his statements about what this technology could do in a way the does not feed the fertile imagination of science fiction authors who love to blow things up, and thereby derail a technology capable of transforming society. Please, no more grey goo! This book touches on the fact that society will be transformed by a radical abundance of all of our needs, and that we may need to discover new modes within society to account for that shift, but he doesn't get into what kinds of new modes. Manufacturing of goods will become a local endeavor, and probably personal. Eventually we will have atomic replicators in our home much like we do microwave ovens today, that will make any thing we want on command. Only raw materials will need to be shipped.

When he gets to the point, this is an interesting read, but he spend so much time developing conceptual and philosophic frameworks and taking twice as long as he could to make the point that I probably missed some great moments out of boredom. On the other hand, he makes a meticulous argument that the ingredients are in place for APM and we just need to have the right cooperation to bring them together. Those ideas are inspirational. I get the feeling he has spent so many years apologising for "nanotechnology" not coming to fruition fast that he feels he needed to defensively belabour the point about the progress already made and redefining of the goals.

I do not know where to begin. I have so many good things to say about Eric Drexler and his years of efforts in educating and teaching the human race about molecular nanotechnology, I don't know where to start. I have been reading this book, it is superb. It is in the tradition of Engines of Creation, Unbounding the Future, and Nano-Systems. Mechanosynthesis is real. Molecular assembler technologies are 100 percent definite within the known laws of physics and chemistry. People who attack Drexler and his knowledge about nanotechnology are not thinking clearly or examining the evidence like they should. The book gives a great overview of nanotechnology and what it can do. If anything, Drexler is being too conservative. By the time we can make molecular replicators and assemblers, quantum control of matter through quantum entanglement technology may be feasible but that is off this topic. Mechanosynthesis is definitely proven to work by the laws of chemistry and physics and biology. Thank you Eric Drexler for writing this excellent book. The case for the feasibility of assemblers and nanofactories rests on these two proven facts among others: 1 Molecules can serve as machine parts 2 Molecular machines can be programmed to perform useful work. In order for someone to truly attack the nanotechnology mechanosynthesis systems Drexler points to, they would have to disprove these two solid facts. Problem: Biology works on these two facts, and all experiments to date support these two facts. People who make fun of Drexler and use terms like "nanobots" and "nanites" to make strawman attacks against this work are foolish and are not considering and thinking deeply enough about these proven chemical facts of nature. Again: to any critics and attackers against this concept: The burden is on you to disprove 1 Molecules can serve as machine parts and 2 Molecular machines can be programmed and designed to do useful work.

What did I get out of reading this book? Mostly I felt the need to go on the web to follow up on some of the comments made on Amazon; I learned more from that than slogging thru the book. For an atheist subjects like nanotechnology & technology singularity is comparable to the rapture of the saints; one should feel inspired however I can’t recall that emotion as I read. I did enjoy reading of the famous debate between Drexler and Richard Smalley on molecular assembly however that was from an article I found online. I mostly appreciated those who challenged the science behind nano-technological theory. Would anything exist if molecular machinery wasn't feasible? Will consumer goods ever be produced from a atomic precise manufacturing desktop machine? Can the obstacles of thermal noise, quantum effects and other concerns of molecular mechanics be overcome to make this a possibility? Is this potential being obscured by our folk reasoning toward an “élan vital” bias? Perhaps Drexler will develop nanobots that will enhance my ability to maintain attention....or maybe in the mean time just write a more entertaining book.

Probably the most approachable of Drexler's books for the non-technical. Drexler has a profound grasp of the potential of nanotechnology and ATM (atomically precise manufacturing), and its influence on society. Few see what is coming. I share his opinion that our short-term focus on incremental and perhaps merely symbolic treatments of climate issues, toxic waste management, efficient energy production, and diminishing resources has distracted us from real progress in ATM that could nullify all these problems. The other impact he discusses is the impact of ATM’s influence on a society where scarcity has become a soon-forgotten thing of the past. Always clear and discerning, and often clever in his delivery, I found Drexler’s writing a bit uneven and repetitive, but his many insights are gems. Unfortunately, his transcendent vision may be too creative for hidebound politicians preferring feel-good over effective. A great read for those open to future ideas.

So I have just finished reading the book, and I'm both disappointed, and happy I read a couple small parts of it (thus 2 stars instead of 1). The book discusses a lot of things, but doesn't really give me any new information for most of it. The author does have a nice section describing relevant sizes...but then...somewhere along the way to making a good informative book he gets lost. It meanders. From discussing his childhood dreams, to the very apparent bitterness both at the politics involved in people hijacking the definition of nanotechnology for business reasons, to being upset that people who see the fantastic possibilities dare to say so because then everyone scoffs. Apparently missing the whole point of the technology however is that it IS transformative. The challenges which shouldn't be made light of are getting from A to B, not how awesome B is. Instead he just wants no one to talk about how great being at B could be. He would far prefer those people to shut up. I'm not sure whom he thinks his target audience is here. His target audience must be chemists...except he does touch bases on a lot of things they already know, or have no interest in. So that cant be it. The non chemists wont connect the dots to his discussions either, as there's too much assumed background for it. There is a VERY strong sense of not wanting to make predictions because there is too much he could be wrong about, so if you were hoping for a rough estimate of when-forget it. If you wanted how...there's a bit more, but the terms involved are never explained enough for many of the non chemist. OK maybe that's unfair. But I cant help but feel that for a book that's over 300 pages long, it could have been put very simply in less then a couple dozen...and there's a couple hundred pages that are just not useful. If you were hoping for some idea of whats possible, you're in some luck - but again out of what appears to be fears of being wrong, or concerns about the uncertainties of the timeline he doesn't get to many specifics that if you have a passing interest in this topic at all you already know. I feel that I could have written a better book. Given how brilliant this man is, that's a horrible statement. I expected much better. I had hoped to learn more.

Esse livro abriu um novo mundo de possibilidades na minha mente.

Eine Pflichtlektüre für jeden der kein unvollständiges Bild der Zukunft haben will. (Zur zeit leider nur englisch verfügbar daher halte ich auch die Beschreibung in englisch.) A must read for anyone who don't want to have an incomplete picture of the future. Since E. Drexler introduced the world to the term "nanotechnology" in his first non technical Book (Engines of Creation) the term has strongly changed in meaning. So much in fact that it's now widely used in exclusion of the original idea. Around the year 2000 massive funding missed pretty much entirely its intended target and the confusion led even to the stigmatization of the original field. In this book he tries to clear up the confusion and reconstructs as best to his ability what exactly happened. He introduces the term "atomically precise manufacturing" (APM) for the targeted technology to clear up existing confusion and prevent further one. The related technical book to this one is: "Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation". With the here reviewed complementary book "Radical Abundance" he tries to direct the view away from some virulent memes (partly spawned by his first non technical book) to the real meat of our path to a fully fledged atomically precise manufacturing (APM) technology. To avoid misunderstandings he tries to use more precise terms this leads to abbreviations like APM. Due to the nature of the subjects with pretty interwoven subtopics the book can be a bit repetitive. Especially in the later chapters. But I think it's very well structured for the common reader who is new to the topic of APM. The repetition is present since the same aspects are treated twice or thrice in different contexts to prevent readers from falling into the many known trapdoors and misassociations. Things which where barely tackled and I missed a bit where: *) More details about recycling. *) An explanation for the choice for doing convergent assembly all the way up to the macroscopic level. (I think I figured it out - It's likely for quick and efficient big scale reconfiguration of pre-produced products without the need to disassemble them down to the micro-blocks) *) More details about why he regards AFM (atoic force microscopy) mainly as distraction. Especially probing tool improvement and MEMS AFMs / MEMS grippers which could potentially be a lot faster than AFMs are not mentioned at all. (From other of his writings I guess It's that he thinks top down technology just comes in later in the game for managing bottom up pre-produced stuff - and that was it was targeted way to early.) In this Book E.Drexler uses the term "microblock" which I think might not have been ideal since it again points to size only (block is generic). Just like with "nano" which caused the mess that prompted him to write this book. Personally I'd have chosen a term like cyclecomponents since this name contains their main characterization features: re-composability and recyclability. I'd guess making "microblocks" smaller (a bit smaller than one micron - E.Drexler mentions design freedom here) greatly increases their generality and reusability. The price is a bit more coupling mechanism volume per product volume and thus less functionality per volume. I especially enjoyed: 1) That the book book also contains a tiny bit of the personal story of K. Eric Drexler. 2) Appendix I & II where he gives a bit of new details for how he thinks high throughput APM level technologies can be reached. Interesting extensions to the Appendix would have been: *) Some ideas/plans/engineering questions for introduction of stereotactic control. *) His thoughts on bio-minerals (second milestone in outlined incremental pathway) All in all I highly recommend reading this. Well written.

Il tema mi interessa molto, ma il libro è molto polemico e presuntuoso. Cercherò qualcosa di più concreto e approfondito...

It changes prevailing perception about lack of resources as well as enormity of challenges in current scenario .Must read for planers and im

I enjoyed it however it's an applied and still very theoretical. It's the best book available for the current cutting edge info on nanotechnology.