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Eric Drexler in 2007
Eric Drexler in 2007

Kim Eric Drexler (born April 25, 1955 in Oakland, California) is an American engineer best known for popularizing the potential of molecular nanotechnology (MNT), from the 1970s and 1980s. Events 1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Oakland (ˈoʊklənd founded in 1852 is the eighth-largest city in the U The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Molecular nanotechnology (MNT is the concept of engineering functional mechanical systems at the molecular scale His 1991 doctoral thesis at MIT was revised and published as the book "Nanosystems Molecular Machinery Manufacturing and Computation" (1992), which received the Association of American Publishers award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992. He also coined the term grey goo. Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving Molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter

Contents

Life and work

Part of a series of articles on
Molecular
Nanotechnology

Molecular assembler
Mechanosynthesis
Molecular machine
Productive nanosystems
Nanorobotics
K. Molecular nanotechnology (MNT is the concept of engineering functional mechanical systems at the molecular scale A molecular assembler as defined by K Eric Drexler is a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision Mechanosynthesis in Chemistry is any Chemical synthesis that takes place by mechanical forces alone A molecular machine has been defined as a discrete number of molecular components that have been designed to perform mechanical-like movements (output in response to specific stimuli The Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems defines " productive nanosystems " as functional Nanometer -scale Systems that make Atomically Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or Robots at or close to the microscopic scale of a Nanometres (10-9 Metres. Eric Drexler
Engines of Creation
Grey goo

See also
Nanotechnology
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K. Engines of Creation is a seminal Molecular nanotechnology book written by K Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving Molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter Nanotechnology, sometimes shortened to nanotech, refers to a field of Applied science whose theme is the control of matter on an Atomic and Molecular Eric Drexler was very strongly influenced by ideas on Limits to Growth in the early 1970s. Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing World population and finite resource supplies commissioned by the His response in his first year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was to seek out someone who was working on extraterrestrial resources. He found Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill of Princeton University, a physicist famous for a strong focus on particle accelerators and his landmark work on the concepts of space colonization. Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. Space colonization (also called space settlement, space humanization, Space habitation, etc Drexler was involved in NASA summer studies in 1975 and 1976. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program Besides working summers for O'Neill building mass driver prototypes, he delivered papers at the first three Space Manufacturing conferences at Princeton. A mass driver or electromagnetic Catapult is a method of Non-rocket spacelaunch that would use a Linear motor to Accelerate The 1977 and 1979 papers were co-authored with Keith Henson, and patents were issued on both subjects, vapor phase fabrication and space radiators. Howard Keith Henson (born 1942 is an American Electrical engineer and Writer on Life extension, Cryonics, Memetics and

Drexler participated in NASA summer studies on space colonies in 1975 and 1976. He fabricated metal films a few tens of nanometers thick on a wax support to demonstrate the potentials of high performance solar sails. Solar sails (also called light sails or photon sails, especially when they use Light sources other than the Sun) are a proposed form of He was active in space politics, helping the L5 Society defeat the Moon Treaty in 1980. The L5 Society was founded in 1975 by Carolyn and Keith Henson to promote the space colony ideas of Dr Content The treaty makes a declaration that the Moon (which the treaty notes includes all celestial bodies for the purposes of language should be used for the benefit of all states

During the late 1970s, he began to develop ideas about molecular nanotechnology (MNT). Molecular nanotechnology (MNT is the concept of engineering functional mechanical systems at the molecular scale In 1979, Drexler encountered Richard Feynman's provocative 1959 talk There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. Richard Phillips Feynman (ˈfaɪnmən May 11 1918 – February 15 1988 was an American Physicist known for the Path integral formulation of quantum There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom is the title of a famous lecture given by physicist Richard Feynman at an American Physical Society meeting The term nanotechnology was coined by the Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in 1974 to describe the precision manufacture of materials with nanometer tolerances, and was unknowingly appropriated by Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology to describe what later became known as molecular nanotechnology (MNT). Nanotechnology, sometimes shortened to nanotech, refers to a field of Applied science whose theme is the control of matter on an Atomic and Molecular Norio Taniguchi (谷口紀男 ( 27 May[[ 912]] - 15 November 1999) was a professor of Tokyo Science University. Engines of Creation is a seminal Molecular nanotechnology book written by K Molecular nanotechnology (MNT is the concept of engineering functional mechanical systems at the molecular scale In that book, he proposed the idea of a nanoscale "assembler" which would be able to build a copy of itself and of other items of arbitrary complexity. He also first published the term "grey goo" to describe what might happen if a hypothetical self-replicating molecular nanotechnology went out of control. Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving Molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter

Drexler holds three degrees from MIT [1]. He received his S.B. in Interdisciplinary Sciences in 1977 and his S.M. in 1979 in Astro/Aerospace Engineering with a Master's thesis titled "Design of a High Performance Solar Sail System,." In 1991 he earned a Ph.D. under the auspices of the MIT Media Lab (formally, the Media Arts and Sciences Section, School of Architecture and Planning). A Bachelor of Science ( BS, BSc or BSc in the UK; less commonly S Aerospace engineering is the branch of Engineering behind the design construction and science of Aircraft and Spacecraft. A doctorate is an Academic degree that indicates the highest level of academic achievement The MIT Media Lab (also known as the Media Lab) is a department within the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His Ph. D. work was the first doctoral degree on the topic of molecular nanotechnology and (after some editing) his thesis, "Molecular Machinery and Manufacturing with Applications to Computation," was published as "Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation" (1992), which received the Association of American Publishers award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992.

Drexler and Christine Peterson, at that time husband and wife, founded the Foresight Institute in 1986 with the mission of "Preparing for nanotechnology. The Foresight Nanotech Institute (formerly Foresight Institute) is a Palo Alto California -based Nonprofit organization for increasing awareness about the ” Drexler and Peterson ended their 21-year marriage in 2002. Drexler is no longer a member of the Foresight Institute.

In August 2005 Drexler joined Nanorex, a molecular engineering software company based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, to serve as the company's Chief Technical Advisor. Bloomfield Hills is a City in Oakland County of the US state of Michigan, northwest of Detroit (18 miles from downtown Detroit [2][3] Nanorex's nanoENGINEER-1 software was reportedly able to simulate a hypothetical differential gear design in "a snap". According to Nanorex's web site, an open source molecular design program is currently slated for release in Fall 2007. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge

In 2006, Drexler married Rosa Wang, a former investment banker who works with Ashoka: Innovators for the Public on improving the social capital markets. Ashoka Innovators for the Public is a Nonprofit organization supporting the field of Social entrepreneurship.

Controversy

Drexler's work on nanotechnology was criticized as naive by Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley in a 2001 Scientific American article. Richard Errett Smalley ( June 6, 1943 – October 28, 2005) was the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry Scientific American is a Popular science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly since August 28, 1845, making it Smalley first argued that "fat fingers" made MNT impossible. He later argued that nanomachines would have to resemble chemical enzymes more than Drexler's assemblers and could only work in water. Drexler maintained that both were straw man arguments, and in the case of enzymes, Prof. A straw man argument is an Informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position Klibanov wrote in 1994, ". . . using an enzyme in organic solvents eliminates several obstacles. . . " [4]) Drexler had difficulty in getting Smalley to respond, but in December 2003, Chemical and Engineering news carried a 4 part debate. [5]

One of the barriers to achieving molecular nanotechnology is the lack of an efficient way to create machines on a molecular/atomic scale. One of Drexler's early ideas was an "assembler," a nanomachine that would comprise an arm and a computer that could be programmed to build more nanomachines. A molecular assembler as defined by K Eric Drexler is a "proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision If an assembler could be built, it might then build a copy of itself, and thus potentially be useful for efficient mass production of nanomachines. But the lack of a way to first build an assembler remains the sine qua non obstacle to achieving this vision. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Please do NOT add the Battlestar Galactica episode

A second difficulty in reaching molecular nanotechnology is design. Hand design of a gear or bearing at the level of atoms is a gruelling task. While Drexler, Merkle and others have created a few designs of simple parts, no comprehensive design effort for anything approaching the complexity of a Model T Ford has been attempted. Ralph C Merkle (born February 2, 1952) is a pioneer in Public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on Molecular nanotechnology The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and also the Flivver) was an Automobile produced by Henry Ford 's Ford

A third difficulty in achieving molecular technology is separating successful trials from failures, and elucidating the failure mechanisms of the failures. Unlike Darwinian evolution, which proceeds by random variations in ensembles of organisms combined with deterministic reproduction/extinction as a selection process to achieve great complexity after billions of years (a set of mechanisms that Richard Dawkins has referred to as a "blind watchmaker"), deliberate design and building of nanoscale mechanisms requires a means other than reproduction/extinction to winnow successes from failures. eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941 is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and Popular science Such means are difficult to provide (and presently non-existent) for anything other than small assemblages of atoms viewable by an AFM or STM. The atomic force microscope (AFM or scanning force microscope (SFM is a very high-resolution type of scanning probe microscope, with demonstrated resolution of fractions Scanning tunneling microscope (STM is a powerful technique for viewing surfaces at the atomic level

Thus, even in the latest report A Matter of Size: Triennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative put out by the National Academies Press in December 2006, (roughly twenty years after Engines of Creation was published) no clear way forward toward molecular nanotechnology is seen, as per the conclusion on page 108 of that report: "Although theoretical calculations can be made today, the eventually attainable range of chemical reaction cycles, error rates, speed of operation, and thermodynamic efficiencies of such bottom-up manufacturing systems cannot be reliably predicted at this time. Thus, the eventually attainable perfection and complexity of manufactured products, while they can be calculated in theory, cannot be predicted with confidence. Finally, the optimum research paths that might lead to systems which greatly exceed the thermodynamic efficiencies and other capabilities of biological systems cannot be reliably predicted at this time. Research funding that is based on the ability of investigators to produce experimental demonstrations that link to abstract models and guide long-term vision is most appropriate to achieve this goal. "

Books by Eric Drexler

Books and articles about Eric Drexler

In science fiction

Drexler is mentioned in the science fiction book The Diamond Age as one of the heroes of a future world where nanotechnology is ubiquitous. The Diamond Age or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a Postcyberpunk Novel by Neal Stephenson.

In the science fiction novel Newton's Wake by Ken Macleod a 'drexler' is a nanotech assembler of pretty much anything that can fit in the volume of the particular machine - socks to starships. Newton's Wake A Space Opera, by Ken MacLeod, is a Science fiction novel (ISBN 1841492248 published in 2004

Drexler is also mentioned in the science fiction book Decipher by Stel Pavlou, his book is mentioned as one of the starting points of the nanomachine construction, as well as giving a better understanding of the way carbon 60 was to be applied. "C60" and "C-60" redirect here For other uses see C60 (disambiguation.

See also

External links


Persondata
NAME Drexler, Kim Eric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Drexler, K. The Foresight Nanotech Institute (formerly Foresight Institute) is a Palo Alto California -based Nonprofit organization for increasing awareness about the Robert A Freitas Jr is a Senior Research Fellow one of four researchers at the nonprofit foundation Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM in Palo Alto, Nanomedicine is the medical application of Nanotechnology. The approaches to nanomedicine range from the medical use of Nanomaterials, to nanoelectronic Ralph C Merkle (born February 2, 1952) is a pioneer in Public key cryptography, and more recently a researcher and speaker on Molecular nanotechnology Richard Phillips Feynman (ˈfaɪnmən May 11 1918 – February 15 1988 was an American Physicist known for the Path integral formulation of quantum A physicist is a Scientist who studies or practices Physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning Space advocacy can be described as the general position supporting pleading or arguing forthe idea or cause of space exploration and settlements Eric; Drexler, Eric
SHORT DESCRIPTION Engineer famous for popularization of molecular nanotechnology
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1955 (1955-04-25) (age 53)
PLACE OF BIRTH Oakland, California
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Molecular nanotechnology (MNT is the concept of engineering functional mechanical systems at the molecular scale Events 1607 - Eighty Years' War: The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar. Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) Oakland (ˈoʊklənd founded in 1852 is the eighth-largest city in the U
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