Yes, it seems like biotech will provide the tools to build nanotech, and Drexler himself is still emphasizing the biotech pathway. In fact, in Engines of Creation, Drexlerian nanotech was called “second-generation nanotech”, with the first generation understood to include current protein synthesis as well as future improvements to the ribosome.
I don’t really see the point of further development of diamondoid nanotech. Drexler made his point in Nanosystems: certain capabilities that seem fantastical are physically possible. It conveniently opens with a list of lower bounds on capabilities, and backs them up with what is, as far as I’m concerned, and enough rigor to make the point.
Once that point has been made, if you want to make nanotechnology actually happen, you should be focused on protein synthesis, right? What you need is not better nanotech designs. It’s some theory of why protein engineering didn’t take over abiotic industry the way people expected, why we’re building iridium-based hydrogen electrolyzers at scale and have stopped talking about using engineered hydrogenases and so on. A identification of the challenges, and a plan for addressing them. What’s the point of continuing to hammer in that second-generation nanotech would be cool if only we could synthesize it?
Yes, it seems like biotech will provide the tools to build nanotech, and Drexler himself is still emphasizing the biotech pathway. In fact, in Engines of Creation, Drexlerian nanotech was called “second-generation nanotech”, with the first generation understood to include current protein synthesis as well as future improvements to the ribosome.
I don’t really see the point of further development of diamondoid nanotech. Drexler made his point in Nanosystems: certain capabilities that seem fantastical are physically possible. It conveniently opens with a list of lower bounds on capabilities, and backs them up with what is, as far as I’m concerned, and enough rigor to make the point.
Once that point has been made, if you want to make nanotechnology actually happen, you should be focused on protein synthesis, right? What you need is not better nanotech designs. It’s some theory of why protein engineering didn’t take over abiotic industry the way people expected, why we’re building iridium-based hydrogen electrolyzers at scale and have stopped talking about using engineered hydrogenases and so on. A identification of the challenges, and a plan for addressing them. What’s the point of continuing to hammer in that second-generation nanotech would be cool if only we could synthesize it?