Drexler E. Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

PublicAffairs, 2013. — 368 p — ISBN-10 1610391136 / ISBN-13 978-1610391139.K. Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology—the science of engineering on a molecular level. In Radical Abundance, he shows how rapid scientific progress is about to change our world. Thanks to atomically precise manufacturing, we will soon have the power to produce radically more of what people want, and at a lower cost. The result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.
Already, scientists have constructed prototypes for circuit boards built of millions of precisely arranged atoms. The advent of this kind of atomic precision promises to change the way we make things—cleanly, inexpensively, and on a global scale. It allows us to imagine a world where solar arrays cost no more than cardboard and aluminum foil, and laptops cost about the same.
A provocative tour of cutting edge science and its implications by the field's founder and master, Radical Abundance offers a mind-expanding vision of a world hurtling toward an unexpected future.An unexpected world
Atoms, Bits, and Radical Abundance
An Early Journey of Ideas
From Molecules to Nanosystems
The revolution in context
Three Revolutions, and a Fourth
The Look and Feel of the Nanoscale World
The Ways We Make Things
Exploring deep technology
Science and the Timeless Landscape of Technology
The Clashing Concerns of Engineering and Science
Exploring the Potential of Technology
The technology of radical abundance
The Machinery of Radical Abundance
The Products of Radical Abundance
The trajectory of technology
Today’s Technologies of Atomic Precision
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future...
How to Accelerate Progress
Bending the arc of the future
Transforming the Material Basis of Civilization
Managing a Catastrophic Success
Security for an Unconventional Future
Changing Our Conversation About the Future