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“FOUNDING FATHER OF NANOTECHNOLOGY,” TO SPEAK NYS Writers Institute, May 6, 2013 CALENDAR LISTING: PROFILE
Written for a general audience, Radical Abundance explores the emerging technology of “atomically precise manufacturing,” and explains how it will create a potentially endless supply of raw materials, ending scarcity as we know it. Drexler argues that many technological projects that have heretofore been considered prohibitively expensive, including space exploration and the prolonged extension of human life, will soon be made affordable. He also examines the earth-shaking consequences of “radical abundance” for traditional economic and political systems.
In 1986, Drexler published the extremely influential book, written for a popular audience, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, with a foreword by artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky. Though many of Drexler’s assertions and predictions provoked (and still provoke) controversy within the scientific community, he is widely credited with inspiring a generation of scientists to investigate the potential of nanoscience, and with attracting attention to the field in society at large. Drexler’s second book, Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation (1992), a physics-based analysis, received the Association of American Publishers award for Most Outstanding Computer Science Book. Drexler recently served as Chief Technical Consultant to the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a project of the Battelle Memorial Institute (the world’s largest nonprofit research and development organization, which manages or co-manages several major national laboratories for the U. S. Department of Energy). He is currently working in a collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund to explore nanotechnology-based solutions to global problems such as energy and climate change. For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.
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