Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization [1]

[6]Eric Drexler introduced the world to nanotechnology in his first book, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology [7]. In his newest book, Radical Abundance [8], Drexler presents a range of topics on the subject, informing the reader of the process of nanoscale manufacturing, current efforts and research (and hurdles), and the benefits to science, society, and the planet once we achieve the reality of nanoscale fabrication.

Drexler presents APM (atomically-precise manufacturing) as the next revolution, the first three being agriculture, industrial, and information [9]. This revolution will be powered once we control "the molecular machinery of life (using) proteins that can fit together to form motors, sensors, structural frameworks, and catalytic devices..." By using natural systems to construct from the atomic level towards larger and more complex products, we can manufacture efficiently, using common chemical substances in place of minerals and metals acquired through ecologically damaging mining, and to create materials we cannot visualize today.

In Drexler's future, APM solves many of the societal issues that create poverty, ecological disasters, and conflict. It's an important work that gives us a future to look forward to when so many visions are broken and dystopian.

Why you should read it
While Big Data, the Internet of Things, and 3D printing are all here and expanding, APM will be a transformative advancement. Drexler is a leader in the field and presents a full overview of this field in Radical Abundance [8]. Though the book is very technical at times, I found it digestible (not easy for an education major with a limited understanding of engineering and cutting edge science, but very rewarding to finish). Information I found valuable include his original ideas about APM:

1. Nature shows that molecular machine systems can be programmed by instructions encoded in DNA to build complex, atomically precise structures, including components that fit together to form molecular machine systems.
2. Nature also shows that molecular machine systems can bind and position a wide range of reactive molecules, guiding their encounters in order to build atomically precise biomolecular structures and machine components.
3. Similar machine systems could be used to bind, position, and combine an even wider range of reactive molecules, not all found in biology, and thereby build a greater range of atomically precise structures, including machine components that are more densely bonded and hence more robust.
4. These more robust next-generation components could be used to build robust and higher-performance production machinery, which in turn could be used to build a yet wider range of components, and from these components yet more capable production machines, and so on, extending toward a horizon far beyond biology.

Another was the section "From Molecules to Microblocks" in which he explains:

How can an APM supply chain produce AP microblocks from raw materials? The process involves a series of stages, from raw materials to pure, refined materials, then from bound molecules to monomers, and finally, to microblocks.

Consider the process from raw materials to purified feedstocks. To make exploratory engineering tractable, it’s best, when possible, to push complexity outside. The process of obtaining and refining raw materials entails intimate and inherently messy contact with the stuff of nature. We already have ways to do that by means of familiar industrial processes, so for the moment let’s push the complexities of things like rock, petroleum, and seawater outside the atomically precise box and consider an APM supply chain that relies on current technologies to provide common, commercial-grade chemical substances. But note that moving novel—and cleaner—technologies further upstream is a natural step in upgrading an APM supply chain.

These commercial-grade inputs must provide all the elements that will appear in the outputs, and preferably little else. I’ve mentioned carbon and hydrogen in connection with output materials, and light hydrocarbons (whether from petroleum or a renewable source) can provide these elements. Air can provide oxygen and nitrogen, while both silicon and aluminum can be delivered as inexpensive water-soluble compounds.

This part of the process is important to understand if his claims of cost-effectivness work out. The ability to harvest air, seawater, and byproducts from today's manufacturing and recycling efforts to provide the raw materials for APM would slowly reduce our need for mining, fracking, coal-burning energy generation, and waste storage.

The next section, "The Origins of Radical Cost Reductions," supports a severe decrease in the cost per kilogram to manufacture goods. The costs of raw materials for production could diminish to the point where:

What do these differences imply for the cost of raw input materials? First, the most useful elements are inexpensive. When delivered in the form of low-cost compounds (silicon dioxide, for example, rather than silicon), carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, aluminum, and silicon can be had for prices in the one dollar per kilogram range.

To understand prospective changes in the cost of raw materials, one must take account of both reductions in input costs per kilogram and reductions in the kilograms required. For example, replacing steel, aluminum, and plastic structures with stronger materials would typically reduce mass by at least a factor of ten. In most instances, taking account of non-structural materials doesn’t greatly change this result (and often improves it).

The bottom line: Most raw materials needed for APM products are common and inexpensive, costing less than one dollar per kilogram. With an adjustment for reductions in mass, this gives a cost equivalent to about ten cents per kilogram, a cost per “effective kilogram.”

And maybe more importantly, Drexler looks beyond clean and cheap goods towards an abundant solution to conflict. In the section "Dispruptive Potential: Military Asymmetries," the author provides this vision of the future:

Weapons that place fewer lives at risk can encourage more warlike policies; widespread US use of drones, though lethal, already illustrates this principle. Abundant, affordable, non-lethal, remotely operated weapons would go further, severing the link between making war and killing people. With reduced moral qualms, the threshold for action would fall. Because an opponent facing this prospect would therefore have less reason to expect restraint, this side of the equation strengthens the logic of preemption.

These are just a few of the passages I tagged for later reference and, as I do with books I find so informative, I purchased a copy for my shelf. Anyone interested in the future should give this book a read to better understand how our children and grandchildren might benefit from an often misunderstood and feared field, to better understand how nanotechnology works, the projected benefits, and why this field is so important to fund as governments around the world begin pumping more money into nanoscale research.

Topics covered
Futurists will enjoy the topics explored in the book, including:

• How atomically-precise manufacturing works
• The difference between scientists and engineers (no joke, it is an interesting section) and why some advancements take longer than others
• Overviews on how the agricultural, industrial, and information revolutions have, and the APM revolution will, influence humanity.
• Explanations of what is happening at the nanoscale level

There are really too many topics to list, but these four alone offer broad and engaging explanations that are an education of their own.

If you enjoyed this review and intend to buy this book, please consider buying through this link [8].