What will it really be like when exponential general-purpose molecular manufacturing is achieved?
Will it result in an ”explosion” of powerful new products? Will it bring a new Industrial Revolution ”overnight” to previously undeveloped areas? Will it ”change everything”?
Or might it perhaps be a more “ho-hum” evolutionary development, significant but not especially transformative?
We think the former is more likely than the latter, and that people everywhere would be wise to evaluate the potential for—and the implications of—dramatic change in the fairly near future. That’s why we urge government bodies, industry groups, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to adopt CRN’s Thirty Essential Nanotechnology Studies as a syllabus to begin exploring numerous issues that could seriously affect them.
It’s also useful, though, to consider ways in which the conceivably disruptive impacts of nanotech might be blunted. One of the biggest bottlenecks to lightning-fast expansion of any new endeavor is the human factor—the politics, economics, and social inertia of dealing with people and societies.
Take a look, for example, at the challenge of converting one Middle Eastern nation from a 19th century scientific backwater to a 21st century “education, science and technology infrastructure” virtually overnight:
Qatar is experiencing a near revolution in science aimed at catapulting the oil-wealthy emirate into the 21st century.
Last November, Qatar’s emir, Hammad bin Khalifa Al-Thani pledged to allocate 2.8 per cent of Qatar’s gross domestic product (GDP) to science research.
The pledge signifies a serious, long-term commitment to science of about US$1.5 billion a year — highly unusual in a region where science and research budgets are almost non-existent.
Managing this budget is the Qatar Foundation (QF). Established by the emir in 1995, the QF is spearheading Qatar’s science revolution. . .
Qatar’s swift progress has not been friction-free. Jim Holste, associate dean of Texas A&M, believes that most of the challenges the university branch has faced were typical start-up issues. But some were not.
“Everything here is so new,” says Holste. “The people we are interacting with [at the QF] are constantly adjusting their organisational structures to cope with increasing demands. QF, which started small, now has so many projects that it sort of struggles to keep up with its own growth.”
Holste says that as a result the QF is grappling not just with the challenges of growth, but also with those of maintaining effective communications with its partners.
The lack of effective communication is sometimes frustrating for the QF’s partners. For instance, Holste says he learned almost too late of the conference involving expatriate Arab scientists.
It’s a good illustration, I think, of the inherent difficulties in pushing the development of new “education, science and technology” infrastructures. Computer data moves at the speed of light, nanomachines will do a million physical operations a second, but people still think and move at a pace evolved for life on the savanna.
Mike Treder is a fellow of the IEET, and the Executive Director of the non-profit
Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, an organization working to raise awareness of the issues presented by advanced nanotechnology.
IEET Blog