Different paths to the nano-scale
K. Eric Drexler · Physics World · 2004
I applaud Physics World for drawing attention to the emerging field of artificial molecular machines (August pp25–29). Their enormous productive potential is illustrated in biology and nature, where molecular machines already build molecular machinery, electronic devices and digital information-storage systems at rates of billions of tonnes per year. To understand the future potential of fabrication technologies (the foundation of all physical technology) we must examine the productive potential of artificial molecular-machine systems. This issue has been a focus of my research since a paper I wrote in 1981 (Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 78 5275), which explored directions first suggested by Richard Feynman in his famous 1959 talk There's plenty of room at the bottom.