These 62 books cost $1,037.22 at your favorite bookstore. The same 62 books are FREE at your new favorite bookstore. TM FREE BOOKS + FREE MINDSTM “Some seminal works stand out like beacons in the history of science. Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica and Watson and Crick’s A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid come quickly to mind. In recent decades we can add Eric Drexler’s Engines of Creation, which established the revolutionary new field of nanotechnology. In the twenty years since this seminal work was published, its premises and analyses have been confirmed and we are starting to apply precise molecular assembly to a wide variety of early applications from blood cell sized devices that can target cancer cells to a new generation of efficient solar panels. We can now see clearly the roadmap over the next couple of decades to the full realization of Drexler’s concept of the inexpensive assembly of macroobjects constructed at the nanoscale controlled by massively parallel information processes, the fulfillment of which will enable us to solve problems — energy, environmental degradation, poverty, and disease to name a few — that have plagued humankind for eons.” — Ray Kurzweil 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D ENGINES OF CREATION 2.0 The Coming Era of Nanotechnology 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION UPDATED AND EXPANDED K. Eric Drexler 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D Engines of Creation 2.0 K. Eric Drexler Copyright © 2006 by K. Eric Drexler. All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copyright owner. The information in this book is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by WOWIO LLC. WOWIO LLC assumes no responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this book. “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom” by Richard Feynman originally published in Engineering & Science, Volume 23, No. 5 (February 1960). Reprinted here with their kind permission. “Molecular Manufacturing: Perspectives on the Ultimate Limits of Fabrication” by K. Eric Drexler originally published in Philosophical Transactions: Physical Sciences and Engineering Volume 353 Issue 1703 (1995) pp321-331 and reprinted here with their kind permission. “The Drexler-Smalley Debate Introduction” by Rudy Baum originally published in Chem. Eng. News, December 1, 2003, 81(48), 37. Copyright © 2003 American Chemical Society. Reprinted here with their kind permission. 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D Table of Contents LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR FOREWORD by Marvin Minsky PRELUDE There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom by Richard Feynman PART I THE FOUNDATIONS OF FORESIGHT 01 Engines of Construction 02 The Principles of Change 03 Predicting and Projecting PART II PROFILES OF THE POSSIBLE 04 Engines of Abundance 05 Thinking Machines 06 The World Beyond Earth 07 Engines of Healing 08 Long Life in an Open World 09 A Door to the Future 10 The Limits to Growth PART III DANGERS AND HOPES 11 Engines of Destruction 12 Strategies and Survival 13 Finding the Facts 14 The Network of Knowledge 15 Worlds Enough, and Time POSTLUDE Advice to Aspiring Nanotechnologists by K. Eric Drexler 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D Table of Contents APPENDICES A Molecular Engineering: An Approach to the Development of General Capabilities for Molecular Manipulation B Molecular Manufacturing: Perspectives on the Ultimate Limits of Fabrication C The Drexler-Smalley Debate i Introduction by Rudy Baum ii An Open Letter to Richard Smalley by K. Eric Drexler iii Toward Closure: An Open Letter to Richard Smalley by K. Eric Drexler iv Response by Richard Smalley v Counter by K. Eric Drexler vi Final Response by Richard Smalley vii Analysis of the Drexler-Smalley Debate by Ray Kurzweil GLOSSARY NOTES AND REFERENCES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D Letter from the Author Twentieth Anniversary Edition The vision I portrayed in Engines of Creation in 1986 inspired a generation of students to direct their careers toward nanotechnology. Perhaps because it explores consequences of physics and broad principles, rather than tracking then-current technologies and trends, Engines continues to sell briskly as a book on the future of technology. It would be difficult to understand where nanotechnology is today without understanding how we got here. Today’s pattern of research and opinion bears the imprint of ideas in Engines of Creation, in part directly, but in large part through reactions, misconceptions, reactions to misconceptions, and the peculiar dance of politics, technologies, and funding that followed. I’d like to offer a sketch of this process as it looked from my perspective, then a brief view looking forward. A Sketch of the History, 196–2006 Engines of Creation envisioned a new landscape of future nanotechnologies, and within a few years of its 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D  Engines of Creation — Drexler publication many regarded the term “nanotechnology” as synonymous with the highest of high technologies. Many researchers were already studying the science and technology of nanoscale things (large molecules, thin coatings, advanced transistors, small particles, thin fibers, etc.) and they found that interest in their work multiplied when they described it as “nanotechnology”. Partly through relabeling, partly though new initiatives, research in nanotechnologies became more coherent and grew explosively. Conferences sprang up, and companies, and government programs. Old fields found fresh vigor, and new capabilities multiplied. In 2001, the U.S. launched a multi-billion dollar National Nanotechnology Initiative (the NNI), and parallel efforts emerged across Europe and Asia, where nanotechnologies were at a similar level. The new nanotechnology establishment in government and industry projected a trillion dollar market within ten years. Critics reacted, warning that nanotechnology was opening a “Pandora’s box”. From a distance, it seemed that the vision presented in Engines of Creation had broadened and grown, inspiring leaders to direct vast resources toward a revolution in manufacturing, toward developing nanoscale machinery, guided by digital data, that would join molecular building blocks to make products with atomic precision and unprecedented capabilities. A closer look showed a different reality: In the U.S., 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D 9 Engines of Creation — Drexler at least, molecular manufacturing became a taboo subject for a decade. The cause was a reaction to a public misconception that had gotten its start from a misreading of Engines. In Engines of Creation, I pictured molecular manufacturing using “replicating assemblers” to build things, including more machines like themselves. I explained why sensibly designed machines of this sort would use and require specially prepared materials and be “useful but harmless”. Further study showed that this approach would be needlessly complex and inefficient. There is simply no need to build tiny self-replicating machines. In a detailed, technical book, I described and analyzed desktop-scale molecular manufacturing systems that would be far simpler and more efficient. (If you like math-intensive books, I recommend it: Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, Wiley/Interscience, 1992). But meanwhile, the earlier ideas from Engines had spread into popular culture — science fiction, movies, and video games — and taken on a life of their own. The ideas that spread fastest simplified, transmogrified, and sensationalized. Soon, “nanotechnology” was all about making so-called “nanobots” — self-replicating bug-like things that could work miracles, but would inevitably run amok, eat the world, and turn it into “gray goo”. And these monster nanobugs were, of course, said to be my idea. 5493706B-FAD4-465E-8E64-8445CDA4263D 10