Comment Re:The author is missing the point (Score 1) 79
Well, to address your points:
1) The problem with nanotech is the assumption that familiar macroscopic concepts (gears, pulleys, "assemblers", what have you) can be easily translated to nanoscopic dimensions. In general, they can't because the physical and chemical properties at that scale are different. Stiction is just one specific example of that.
2) Everything is exactly like what it is. Some things are somewhat like things they aren't. For the physical world, the degree of "somewhat" is pretty much independent of convenient or attractive metaphors (unless you believe in deconstructionism). But when you're trying to communicate nonobvious concepts to nonspecialists, you're doomed to using everyday language, which can easily be imprecise, vague, or misleading. Some scientists (Sagan comes to mind) seem to be better at this than others, but they also tend to spend more time at it.
I think it's highly unlikely that Whitesides assumes everything is like chemistry or biology. What he's trying to do is demonstrate that a) we already have nanotechnology (biology) that works so well that we have yet to improve upon it in some of its most mundane aspects, yet we're nowhere near to understanding it, and b) nanotechnology in the sense of nanoscopic analogs of macrosopic mechanical devices is likely to be quite a bit more challenging than common technical sense might suggest.
3) Enzyme structure is 3D, but that 3D structure is determined by its linear sequence of amino acids. How that 3D structure is achieved continues to be a mystery. It's not random thermal motion causing the strand to move through all physically possible conformations until the proper one is found; it's been shown that to do so for any reasonably sized protien would require time on the order of the lifetime of the universe. In some cases, other (3D) protiens appear to assist in the folding of protiens (in 3D space) but of course those helper protiens had to start somewhere... the old chicken & egg problem. Now, how does this relate to a serious problem for nanotech? Well, the point he left out is how incredibly efficient this process is in biological system in terms of yield, minimal waste products, accuracy & error correction, and total energy budget. Compare the energy used to bond an amino acid onto the end of a growing protien with the energy consumed by an STM tip when it's moving single atoms around.
Using an STM on a single atom is the equivalent of using an entire skyscraper to skewer & move a pea-sized chunk of beeswax.
4) See my answer in 2). Same problem. But if weak arguments make you queasy, don't think too deeply while reading Drexler.
I have two main problems with Drexler's modus operandi. First, none of his work provides any, ANY, practical or useful approaches for attacking the fundamental problems that face nanotechnology. Pretty pictures drawn with molecular modeling software and parroting the jargon of the physical sciences doesn't count. He's a techno-utopian; he can imagine the promised land, but he can't help you get there. There's more useful technical content in Feynman's original "There's Plenty of Room At the Bottom". And Feynman's essay is about a library shelf shorter than Drexler's collected screeds, and a lot more entertaining to read.
Second, because of his approach--employing attractive but technically directionless metaphors--he is effectively tapping into the collective sci-fi raised consciousness of legions of geeks to--dare I say it?--create a religion. Don't believe me? Look at the other posts to this article; look at the posts to any article on nanotechnology, and their uncritical acceptance of our technological reentrance into the Garden of Eden, Real Soon Now. Look at the idiotic ways that nanotechnology is being promoted (objects copied as freely as MP3s, the end of physical want, resurrection of the cryonics cult popsicles) and look at the idiotic ways it is being opposed (Bill Joy's Chicken Little essay).
There's real, viable, important progress to be made in nanotechnology. Grandstanders like Drexler aren't helping.
1) The problem with nanotech is the assumption that familiar macroscopic concepts (gears, pulleys, "assemblers", what have you) can be easily translated to nanoscopic dimensions. In general, they can't because the physical and chemical properties at that scale are different. Stiction is just one specific example of that.
2) Everything is exactly like what it is. Some things are somewhat like things they aren't. For the physical world, the degree of "somewhat" is pretty much independent of convenient or attractive metaphors (unless you believe in deconstructionism). But when you're trying to communicate nonobvious concepts to nonspecialists, you're doomed to using everyday language, which can easily be imprecise, vague, or misleading. Some scientists (Sagan comes to mind) seem to be better at this than others, but they also tend to spend more time at it.
I think it's highly unlikely that Whitesides assumes everything is like chemistry or biology. What he's trying to do is demonstrate that a) we already have nanotechnology (biology) that works so well that we have yet to improve upon it in some of its most mundane aspects, yet we're nowhere near to understanding it, and b) nanotechnology in the sense of nanoscopic analogs of macrosopic mechanical devices is likely to be quite a bit more challenging than common technical sense might suggest.
3) Enzyme structure is 3D, but that 3D structure is determined by its linear sequence of amino acids. How that 3D structure is achieved continues to be a mystery. It's not random thermal motion causing the strand to move through all physically possible conformations until the proper one is found; it's been shown that to do so for any reasonably sized protien would require time on the order of the lifetime of the universe. In some cases, other (3D) protiens appear to assist in the folding of protiens (in 3D space) but of course those helper protiens had to start somewhere... the old chicken & egg problem. Now, how does this relate to a serious problem for nanotech? Well, the point he left out is how incredibly efficient this process is in biological system in terms of yield, minimal waste products, accuracy & error correction, and total energy budget. Compare the energy used to bond an amino acid onto the end of a growing protien with the energy consumed by an STM tip when it's moving single atoms around.
Using an STM on a single atom is the equivalent of using an entire skyscraper to skewer & move a pea-sized chunk of beeswax.
4) See my answer in 2). Same problem. But if weak arguments make you queasy, don't think too deeply while reading Drexler.
I have two main problems with Drexler's modus operandi. First, none of his work provides any, ANY, practical or useful approaches for attacking the fundamental problems that face nanotechnology. Pretty pictures drawn with molecular modeling software and parroting the jargon of the physical sciences doesn't count. He's a techno-utopian; he can imagine the promised land, but he can't help you get there. There's more useful technical content in Feynman's original "There's Plenty of Room At the Bottom". And Feynman's essay is about a library shelf shorter than Drexler's collected screeds, and a lot more entertaining to read.
Second, because of his approach--employing attractive but technically directionless metaphors--he is effectively tapping into the collective sci-fi raised consciousness of legions of geeks to--dare I say it?--create a religion. Don't believe me? Look at the other posts to this article; look at the posts to any article on nanotechnology, and their uncritical acceptance of our technological reentrance into the Garden of Eden, Real Soon Now. Look at the idiotic ways that nanotechnology is being promoted (objects copied as freely as MP3s, the end of physical want, resurrection of the cryonics cult popsicles) and look at the idiotic ways it is being opposed (Bill Joy's Chicken Little essay).
There's real, viable, important progress to be made in nanotechnology. Grandstanders like Drexler aren't helping.
