Customer Reviews

Nanofuture: What's Next For Nanotechnology

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I can't give this book more than two stars, and that's being generous.

Mr. Hall does present some interesting ideas, but unfortunately, his editors have done him a huge disservice. Here are the first three sentences of Stage I, on page 23;

Essentially what we have now--nanoscale science and technology--including the ability to image at the atomic scale with scanning probe microscopes, and a very limited ability to manipulate, that is, by pushing things around with the same scanning probes. A scanning probe is essentially like feeling something with a stick. Because you have a computer behind it, you can touch it in a very close grid of points and produce a picture.

I made it through the first fifty pages, and it didn't get any better.

I don't know if Mr. Hall had a final read before publication, or not, but someone should have stopped this book from being published until it was properly edited.







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I had the feeling I've read this book before. And in a way I have, because it recycles much of Eric Drexler's book, "Engines of Creation," from nearly 20 years ago, even copying Drexler's condescending way of explaining basic scientific and technological concepts. It would have made more sense for Hall to publish an updated edition of "Engines" and list himself as a co-author, instead of writing a largely derivative book of his own. He could still have put in a chapter about his "invention" of Utility Fog, yet another example of nanotech vaporware that many of us long-time "Transhumanists" probably won't live long enough to see. I didn't feel I got my money's worth, so borrow it from the library before you decide whether to buy it.

First of all I must say this book is not for the faint of heart or faint of mind. I wouldn't reccomend someone who hadn't been educated at a university or at least had interest in nanotechnology. For those who don't know nanotechnology in the loose usage is just parts that range from 1 to 1000 nanometers in size-essentially many billions of times smaller than the width of a human hair. However, what people in the industry refer to as true nanotechnology is machinery that can operate at a molecular or atomic level. Some aspects of the book get fairly deep into biology, physics and chemistry. For the first half of the book there is a "nanofact" or possible amazing thing that can be done with this technology every other page. The second half gets into the logistics and actual possiblity of nanotechnology.

Not to be terribly critical but it is clear Hall's PhD is in science and not literature. I didn't go looking for errors but I did find a few. So if you are looking for a well edited book or mind some of the goofy onomotopia then you probably shouldn't read this book. Nanofuture is more like a science fiction novel written by an actual scientist than a reference. About halfway through the book I felt like could have really started to curtail. Instead Dr. Hall starts going into more opinated topics such as space living and transhumanism. I say opininated because they are his opinions. While some are warranted, others are just what he feels should happen. This is why scientists don't run countries.

Hall touts nanotechnology as the next technological revolution and he makes a very good argument for it. Some of the most interesting facts: it would be possible to make an electrostatic engine with billions of smaller nanoengines capable of making the equivalent of a 100,000 horsepower jet engine that could fit in the palm of your hand/an atomically precise building going up for tens of miles/all the information on the internet (approximately 4 billion webpages) could fit into a single grain of sand with nanotechnology.

Hall talks about five stages of nanotechnology which ranges from stage one which are just moving parts at the nanometer level to level five where whole nanofactories can replicate themselves and are completely autonomous. Having completed some college physics I know a few things about the possibility of these quite incredible machines. Everything at least is plausible because on the atomic level there is no waste and these machines will not ever wear, making so many things in transportation almost infinitely more efficient.

The latter part of the book gets into some considerably further off technology such as synthesizing machines and robots. Some of this seems to be almost pointless to put in the book because a large part of it is speculation--especially the robots. More importantly the greatest factor in deciding if and when nanotechnology will come to fruition is politics. Science and progress, for the past several centuries has depended on politics, whether in the church or in the government. According to Hall one billion dollars a year are being allocated to research across the United States. Unfortunately, much of this funding is going to research that is moving rather slow and/or being used for creating small parts for current technology in cpu's, cell phones, televisions and various other electronics. He intimates that nanotechnology is most likely going to be considerably advanced in the next decade, almost certainly in the next 25 years and definitely in the next century. I have to agree with him about this, but only in the sense that this technology will become more prevalent; quite possibly never ubiquitous as televisions or computers.

For those who are new to nanotechnology, this is a good place to start. But be prepared for a journey through a variety of disciplines that relate to this topic, including physics, engineering, biology, and others. The descriptions and analogies that explain what nanotechnology is, how it would work, and what it would be good for are useful and understandable. Those who are already reasonably familiar with these concepts might find the first half of the book tedious, and should probably look for something more advanced, perhaps addressing particular applications of nanotechnology.
The character of the narrative changes about two-thirds of the way into the book, as Hall shifts to discussions of possible nano-futures and why we should embrace them rather than fear them. At this point, technical explanation gives way to speculation and opinion. There's nothing wrong with that - it's always interesting to hear what experienced, forward-looking technologists have to say about their perspective on the future. From my perspective (political scientist specializing in science & tech policy, especially for space), I would have liked to see more about how evolving nanotech can be used to develop capabilities and solutions in the medium term and less about how we're going to become preternatural transhumans who all own Star Trek-style matter synthesizers.
The artificial intelligence chapter is an interesting intro to AI, but the tie-in to nanotech is almost non-existent, so it seems like a sidebar discussion. Regarding the chapter on space, I would have liked to see this topic far more developed given the author's obvious interest in it. The role of nanotech in space seems relegated to making better spacesuits and stronger, lighter spaceships - and of course, providing spacefarers with those handy synthesizers than can turn asteroid dust into food. There must be a multitude of other applications: sensor nets, very large-scale life support systems, space agriculture, energy generation and distribution, propulsion, etc. For those who are fond of the "space elevator" and similar concepts, Hall quickly dismisses these as infeasible and proposes his own idea for an immense launch tower (60 miles high, 240 miles long) that seems like it would be even more difficult to construct than the space elevator.
Some readers will prefer the technical exposition of the first part of the book; others, the futurist speculation of the second part. Either way, this is a topic we need to be thinking about, since the future is what we make it.

This book provides some rather well informed insights into what molecular engineering will be able to do in a few decades. It isn't as thoughtful as Drexler's Engines of Creation, but it has many ideas that seem new to this reader who has been reading similar essays for many years, such as a solar energy collector that looks and feels like grass.
The book is somewhat eccentric in it's choice of what to emphasize, devoting three pages to the history of the steam engine, but describing the efficiency of nanotech batteries in a footnote that is a bit too cryptic to be convincing.
The chapter on economics is better than I expected, but I'm still not satisfied. The prediction that interest rates will be much higher sounds correct for the period in which we transition to widespread use of general purpose assemblers, since investing capital in producing more machines will be very productive. But once the technology is widespread and mature, the value of additional manufacturing will decline rapidly to the point where it ceases to put upward pressure on interest rates.
The chapter on AI is disappointing, implying that the main risks of AI are to the human ego. For some better clues about the risks of AI, see Yudkowsky's essay on Creating Friendly AI.

It has been two decades since Drexler's Engines of Creation launched the beginnings of the nanotech revolution, and it has aged better than any other technical book I've ever read. Since Engines of Creation has not yet been updated, J. Storrs Hall's book Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology is the book to read to quickly learn why increasing numbers of people are getting excited about nanotechnology.

Hall begins the book by addressing the current confusion regarding nanotechnology, explaining how the National Nanotechnology Initiative's budget is being spent on nanoscale science, with almost nothing going to what Hall defines as nanotechnology: atomically precise manufacturing of machines whose parts are built with atomic precision. This means that each atom and bond in the finished part is designed, just as the parts in the machinery are.

To deliver on the results that most people expect from nanotechnology, the current NNI research focus--on synthetic chemistry, nanoscale particles, materials science, and even nanoelectronics--is not enough. In clear and easy-to-read prose, Hall explains why, and he explains what needs to be done, and how we've progressed towards that goal.

As the former administrator of the sci.nanotech newsgroup, Hall observed or participated in many discussions on nanotech issues in the last two decades. These included everything from the technical problems of molecular self-assembly and self-replication to the methods for preventing catastrophic misuses of advanced molecular manufacturing. He uses this expertise to explain complex technical details, without ignoring the social and economic implications. The biggest difference between Engines of Creation and Nanofutures is that Hall discusses many advances made in the last 20 years, and addresses arguments that were leveled against Engines of Creation. He also puts many applications of nanotechnology in a detailed historical context, connecting them strongly not only with the present, but with the past.

While Hall is optimistic about nanotech developments, he often explains the caveats involved. He says things like "If we can do using the primitive molecularly imprecise structures, isn't it reasonable that we'll be able to do much better with atomically precise ones?" He then explains the limits that we may not be able to overcome. For example, molecular manufacturing may enable better superconductors in general, but may not enable nanoscale superconducting wires because there may not be enough room for the molecular processes involved in superconduction to operate.

One section of Nanofuture that might be over-optimistic is the section on AI, for the same reason that Engines of Creation was over-optimistic: the predictions are not concerned with new engineering (which generally is predictable) but with new science (in which new discoveries cannot be predicted). In this case, AI may even require new metaphysics.

Hall's projections miss the ways in which the nanotechnology revolution will extend the two biggest problems raised by the World Wide Web. The first is the physical instantiation of computer viruses. They will most likely only infect nanofactories, but the impact will be more substantial than if only software were affected. The second is the human vulnerability to compulsive addictions (eg. gambling, pornography, computer games).

In summary, unless you've been closely following nanotechnology for the past 20 years, Hall's Nanofuture is the best book for understanding the coming nanotech revolution.

Nanotechnology is one of the few emerging technologies that truly has the potential to significantly alter our future. At this stage it is still at the level of the Wright Brothers first flyer. It's interesting to see what the visionary thinkers are beginning to think will come in the future. It must be understood that while forecasting the future like this book does is easy (although I don't have the specialized knowledge to do it) being right is very, very hard.

This is not the way that the future will unfold. But if the past is any forecast of the future, he is too conservative rather than too expansive.

The future, particularily in terms of avaiable resources (such as oil) isn't going to be like the past century or so. Nano machines that are the size of human hair don't take many resources. His 100-kilowatt (about 133 hp) engine running on hydrogen weights about 1.5 ounces. That's not much in resources when compared with an engine of equal power.

His chapters on the real dangers from nano-war, nano-terrorism, and others are excellent and make it clear that the technology may be different, but we are all still people.

One of the other reviewers suggested library, and I followed that advice. I am so glad I did! This isn't a book I'd want in my personal collection. The editing is terrible, and the book feels more like a history lesson regarding the real-world roots of nano-tech than what's actually coming in the nano-tech future. While published in 2005, this book was merely Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology slightly updated. Having read Drexler's first book, little has been added with this newer edition.

The given examples of 'today's' nanotech are ultrafine powders, experimental computer chips, the beam of an electron microscope, and DNA. It is clear we are nowhere near real nanotech, and the author pads out the book with scientific history (seen it before) and speculation (read better science fiction).

No mention is made of the potential health risks of nanetic debris left-over from damaged nano-machines or self-replication. The 'dangers' chapter focuses on the usual run-away machines, war weapons, and bio-illness attack nanites (author downplays this by stating biosciences will make more effective diseases than nano-science). Nothing about how your first generation nano-suit might poison you inadvertently. The brief paragraph on 'nano-particles' (p236) doesn't account for the potential unknown reaction between human immune systems and complex nano-particles/machines which somehow enter the human body through the skin. Rather, the author prefers to pipe-dream up nano-machines repairing our cells as an extended surgery tools. Again, nothing about allergic reactions or T-Cell responses. Nothing about what a low-level EMP pulse from sunspots or power line magnetic fields might do to an unshielded 'augmented' human (improvements chapter p257-269) or nano-machines in general. How might a person's own personal bio-electrical field and nerve impulses interfere with a functional nano-machine? Also nothing about nano-surveillance with picture and tracking capabilities.

Overall, I was disappointed because it felt like the book didn't address the questions I had. No equations, and too fanciful and idealized. I doubt we're making matter into software (p271) in the next few hundred years. I did find the Utility Fog (p188) and parts of the Artificial Intelligence Chapter interesting, so I can't say I didn't like the book. Still not really worth buying for about 15 pages of material. Your mileage may vary, but use the library copy.

For what the book says it will provide I was very impressed. Hall does indeed provide the content in a way that it is readable by people that do not have specilized knowledge in this area, such as myself. I also enjoyed his opinions on the future possibilities involving nanotech, which were presented in a way that you knew they were his opinions, not facts.
Overall I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking to get a feel of what nanotech is about and where it may be able to take us in the future.

There are two main reasons why I don't recommend this book to anyone. The first, and most annoying, reason is readability. This book was written horribly. Many times I found myself struggling to understand what the author wanted to say. This book requires a great deal of editing. I managed to go through some of it, but I just couldn't continue.

The second and very important reason is the structure of the book. The author digs into details without giving the big picture. Although the details are not that technical, but they lack perspective. I got lost in the details without understanding the reason behind them.

One other thing I didn't like, but wasn't a big factor in my decision to stop reading the book was some of some examples. Sometimes the examples didn't convey the idea well enough. They weren't thought out well enough.