K. Eric Drexler 

Deborah Marty Flores

 

      Born April 25, 1955 in Oakland, California; K. Eric Drexler is best known for popularizing the potential of molecular nanotechnology from the 1970s to the 1980s. His 1991 doctoral thesis at MIT was published as the book, “Nanosystems Molecular Machinery Manufacturing & Computation,” and received the award for Best computer science book of 1992. Drexler also coined the term “grey goo,” which means an end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self- replicating robots consume all matter on earth while building more of themselves- a scenario also called ecophagy, which is eating the environment.

      K. Eric Drexler was strongly influences by ideas on limits to growth in the early 1970s, which made him seek out someone who was working on extraterrestrial resources. He found Dr. Gerard K. O’Neil of Princeton University, a physicist famous for a strong focus on particle accelerators and his landmark work on the concepts of space colonization. Drexler worked the summers for O’Neil on building mass drivers prototypes, vapor phase fabrication and space radiators. During the late 70s he began developing ideas about molecular nanotechnology. The term nanotechnology was coined by the Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi in 1974 to describe the precise manufacture of materials with nanometer tolerances, and was unknowingly appropriated by Drexler in his book, “Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology.” It was in that book that he proposed the idea of nanoscale “assembler” which would be able to build a copy of itself and if other items of arbitrary complexity. And he also published the term “grey goo” to describe what might happen if a hypothetical self-replicating molecular nanotechnology went out of control.

      Drexler holds three degrees from MIT, received his S.B. in Interdisciplinary Sciences in 1977 and his S.M. in 1979 in Astro/Aerospace engineering with a Master’s thesis titled, “Design of a High Performance And Solar Sail System. In 1991 he earned his first doctoral degree on the topic of molecular nanotechnology and his thesis, “Molecular Machinery & Manufacturing with Applications to Computation.” Which may sound familiar since it was published under “Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation” in 1992. He also founded alongside his wife, the Foresight Institute in 1986 which he is no longer part of since he and his wife got divorced on 2002. In august of 2005 Drexler joined Nanorex, a molecular engineering software company based in mivhegan to serve as the company’s Chief Technical Advisor. This software was reportedly able to stimulate a hypothetical differential gear design in “a snap” which is an open source molecular design program and is currently set for release in Fall 2007.

      Drexler's work on nanotechnology was criticized as naive by Nobel Prize winner Richard Smalley in 2001 during the Scientific American article.  He argued that nanomachines would have to resemble chemical enzymes more than Drexler's assemblers and could only work in water. Drexler maintained that both were weak arguments. In December of 2003 Smalley and Drexler held a debate to argue their points.

      One of the barriers to achieving molecular nanotechnology is the lack of an efficient way to create machines on a molecular/atomic scale. One of Drexler's early ideas was an "assembler," a nanomachine that would comprise an arm and a computer that could be programmed to build more nanomachines. If an assembler could be built, it might then build a copy of itself, and thus potentially be useful for efficient mass production of nanomachines. But the lack of a way to first build an assembler remains the sine qua non, a condition without which it could not be, an obstacle to achieving this vision. A second difficulty in reaching molecular nanotechnology is design. Hand design of a gear or bearing at the level of atoms is a difficult task. While Drexler and Ralph C. Merkle and others have created a few designs of simple parts, no comprehensive design effort for anything approaching the complexity of a Model T Ford has been attempted. A third difficulty in achieving molecular technology is separating successful trials from failures, and elucidating the failure mechanisms of the failures.  Deliberate design and building of nanoscale mechanisms requires a means other than reproduction/extinction to winnow successes from failures. Such means are difficult to provide (and presently non-existent) for anything other than small assemblages of atoms viewable by an AFM or STM.

      There are a lot of obstacles to make nanotechnology work but I’m confident that in a few years from now someone will come and add to the Drexler’s theory and perfect it. I decided this topic since I find it extremely interested and I like to know what new things are being discovered every day in science. Also nanotechnology is just another way to discover new, better ways to make out way of life better, safer and environment healthy. I do not agree the concept of just replacing manual manufacturing completely and trust and let machines run everything. But I do believe that nanotechnology is our way of saying that new things are discovered daily and that we have the knowledge and the power to make a change, if we put our hearts and mind into it, anything is possible.