The really big difference is that what you make with a molecular machine can be completely precise, down to the tiniest degree of detail that can exist in the world. K. Eric Drexler bigcompletelydegree Change image and share on social
My work at MIT had focused on what we could build in space once we had inexpensive space transportation and industrial facilities in orbit. And this led to various sorts of work in space development. K. Eric Drexler builddevelopmentfacility Change image and share on social
Today we have big, crude instruments guided by intelligent surgeons, and we have little, stupid molecules of drugs that get dumped into the body, diffuse around and interfere with things as best they can. At present, medicine is unable to heal anything. K. Eric Drexler bigbodycrude share on social
The basic parts, the start-up molecules, can be supplied in abundance and don't have to be made by some elaborate process. That immediately makes things simpler. K. Eric Drexler abundancebasicelaborate Change image and share on social
The other advantage is that in conventional manufacturing processes, it takes a long time for a factory to produce an amount of product equal to its own weight. With molecular machines, the time required would be something more like a minute. K. Eric Drexler advantageamountconventional share on social
I've encountered a lot of people who sound like critics but very few who have substantive criticisms. There is a lot of skepticism, but it seems to be more a matter of inertia than it is of people having some real reason for thinking something else. K. Eric Drexler criticcriticismencounter share on social
And that because the moving parts are a million times smaller than the ones we're familiar with, they move a million times faster, just as a smaller tuning fork produces a higher pitch than a large one. K. Eric Drexler familiarfastfork share on social
After realizing that we would eventually be able to build molecular machines that could arrange atoms to form virtually any pattern that we wanted, I saw that an awful lot of consequences followed from that. K. Eric Drexler arrangeatomawful share on social
Likewise nanotechnology will, once it gets under way, depend on the tools we have then and our ability to use them, and not on the steps that got us there. K. Eric Drexler abilitydependlikewise Change image and share on social
If you take all the factories in the world today, they could make all the parts necessary to build more factories like themselves. So, in a sense, we have a self-replicating industrial system today, but it would take a tremendous effort to copy what we already have. K. Eric Drexler buildcopyeffort share on social
