Current Results of Our Research
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CRN Research: Overview of Current Findings
Thirty Essential Nanotechnology Studies - #19
Overview of all studies: Because of the largely unexpected transformational power of molecular manufacturing, it is urgent to understand the issues raised. To date, there has not been anything approaching an adequate study of these issues. CRN's recommended series of thirty essential studies is organized into five sections, covering fundamental theory, possible technological capabilities, bootstrapping potential, product capabilities, and policy questions. Several preliminary conclusions are stated, and because our understanding points to a crisis, a parallel process of conducting the studies is urged.
CRN is actively looking for researchers interested in performing or assisting with this work. Please contact CRN Research Director Chris Phoenix if you would like more information or if you have comments on the proposed studies.
| Study #19 | What impact will the system have on production and distribution? |
| Determine how diamondoid nanofactory molecular manufacturing will change the way products are made and delivered. | |
| Subquestion | How close can the factory be placed to place and time of product use? |
| Preliminary answer | The factory should be able to be placed almost anywhere and might even be suitable for use as a home appliance. Products could be built in a few hours. High functional density implies that most of a product will be inert, so basic functional nanoblocks could be pre-built and simply rearranged into the final product; this would take only a few seconds. |
| Subquestion | How easily can new products be designed? |
| Preliminary answer | With CAD-to-prototype costing very little in time or money, new product development should be comparable to digital graphic arts combined with software engineering. In other words, simple products could be designed in a day. Without the need to retool factories or stock a supply chain, market testing of new products could involve much lower commercial risk. |
| Subquestion | For what products will this out-compete traditional systems by an order of magnitude or more? |
| Preliminary answer | With a suitable palette of appearance and functional units, almost any manufactured product could be built with this system. Manufacturing cost should be significantly lower. Transportation and storage costs should be near zero. Design costs may be higher at first but will drop rapidly. |
| Conclusion |
Diamondoid
nanofactory molecular manufacturing will give serious competition to,
and probably displace, a large fraction of extraction, manufacturing,
transport, and storage. |
| Other studies |
1. Is
mechanically guided chemistry a viable basis for a manufacturing technology? 2. To what extent is molecular manufacturing counterintuitive and underappreciated in a way that causes underestimation of its importance? 3. What is the performance and potential of diamondoid machine-phase chemical manufacturing and products? 4. What is the performance and potential of biological programmable manufacturing and products? 5. What is the performance and potential of nucleic acid manufacturing and products? 6. What other chemistries and options should be studied? 7. What applicable sensing, manipulation, and fabrication tools exist? 8. What will be required to develop diamondoid machine-phase chemical manufacturing and products? 9. What will be required to develop biological programmable manufacturing and products? 10. What will be required to develop nucleic acid manufacturing and products? 11. How rapidly will the cost of development decrease? 12. How could an effective development program be structured? 13. What is the probable capability of the manufacturing system? 14. How capable will the products be? 15. What will the products cost? 16. How rapidly could products be designed? 17. Which of today's products will the system make more accessible or cheaper? 18. What new products will the system make accessible? 20. What effect will molecular manufacturing have on military and government capability and planning, considering the implications of arms races and unbalanced development? 21. What effect will this have on macro- and microeconomics? 22. How can proliferation and use of nanofactories and their products be limited? 23. What effect will this have on policing? 24. What beneficial or desirable effects could this have? 25. What effect could this have on civil rights and liberties? 26. What are the disaster/disruption scenarios? 27. What effect could this have on geopolitics? 28. What policies toward development of molecular manufacturing does all this suggest? 29. What policies toward administration of molecular manufacturing does all this suggest? 30. How can appropriate policy be made and implemented? |
| Studies should begin immediately. | The situation is extremely urgent. The stakes are unprecedented, and the world is unprepared. The basic findings of these studies should be verified as rapidly as possible (months, not years). Policy preparation and planning for implementation, likely including a crash development program, should begin immediately. |
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