| I,
Nanokook
I
wish I hadn’t got talking about nanotechnology. I wanted the
job as communication lecturer very much, and I was both experienced
and qualified:
Interviewer:
So can you, using words of two syllables or less, explain
what nanotechnology is?
Me:
Molecular nanotechnology. . .
Interviewer:
That’s more than two syllables
Me:
Um. . . It’s when we’ll be able to alter matter as easily
as we now move data.
Perhaps
I should have said “There’s plenty of room at the bottom”.
I didn’t get the job. It may not have been due to my failing
to make my words tiny enough.
I
think nanotechnology has the potential to transform our world
and solve many of our problems, particularly those to do with
scarcity of resources. Hey! That’s a lot of the world’s problems.
Ever heard the idea that “all wars are about resources”?
I’m
pretty well informed and tend to talk about carbon nanotubes
rather than tiny robots. At least the nanotubes exist. But
the topic still doesn’t go down too well among the city folk
of Auckland, New Zealand. I usually proffer a nanosolution
to the terribly gloomy scenarios people paint of the future,
and come away feeling like some kook selling snake oil.
Nanotechnology
still sounds so sci-fi. What’s more it sounds like bad sci-fi,
fill of mad scientist inventions such as free energy, space
elevators and spray on computers.
Perhaps
there just aren’t the results out there for it to seem real
to people. I’ve not even come across nanopants or carbon nanotube
reinforced tennis racquets. And where are those carbon nanotube
big screens? A year ago I read they could be on the market
as early as Christmas 2004. Now they look to be a few years
away. Michael Criton’s movie version of Prey will be out in
plenty of time. Nanoheebeejeebees.
Still,
technology marches ahead. I continue to be impressed with
computers such as the new G5 imac, and most of the gadgets
you’ll find at engadget.com.
Technology
has not yet entered the new diamond age, but it’s still pretty
shiny.
www.nanokiwi.com
Copyright © 2004 Jason Des Forges
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