I’ll note that something that took me a long time to understand about nanotech in my relative youth was that the difference in scale between nanotechnological structures and cellular structures mattered, which meant that nanotech was meaningfully different from biotech. (Roughly speaking, I think I was lumping all “very small things” into the same bucket.) Assuming that wasn’t a complete idiosyncracy of mine, you might want to emphasize explicitly the important differences between custom-built self-replicating nanobots & custom-built self-replicating bacteria.
This is important, as many nanotechnology advocates (starting from Drexler himself) point to life as proof by example that what they’re trying for is possible. Though this is a less egregious conflation than seguing from chemistry (new materials) into nanoscopic robotics.
I’ll note that something that took me a long time to understand about nanotech in my relative youth was that the difference in scale between nanotechnological structures and cellular structures mattered, which meant that nanotech was meaningfully different from biotech. (Roughly speaking, I think I was lumping all “very small things” into the same bucket.) Assuming that wasn’t a complete idiosyncracy of mine, you might want to emphasize explicitly the important differences between custom-built self-replicating nanobots & custom-built self-replicating bacteria.
This is important, as many nanotechnology advocates (starting from Drexler himself) point to life as proof by example that what they’re trying for is possible. Though this is a less egregious conflation than seguing from chemistry (new materials) into nanoscopic robotics.