The Significance of Nanotechnology in Modern Society

Nanotechnology is a big buzz-word in the realms of science and technology at the moment, and the trend looks set to increase exponentially. All of a sudden, nanotech is everywhere, from computer chips to bicycle frames. But many laymen are unaware of what the term actually refers to. The Wikipedia definition of ‘Nanotechnology’ sums it up as follows:

Nanotechnology is any technology which exploits phenomena and structures that can only occur at the nanometer scale, which is the scale of several atoms and small molecules. The United States’ National Nanotechnology Initiative website defines it as follows: “Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions of roughly 1 to 100 nanometers, where unique phenomena enable novel applications.”

Common misconceptions of nanotech often stem from scenarios in science fiction stories. Arguably the best known is Eric Drexler’s ‘gray goo’ scenario, in which autonomous self-replicating nanobots run amok, converting all matter into copies of themselves in an exponential chain reaction. This worst-case scenario has largely been debunked by experts in the field, though it is accepted that it could result from a deliberately-created Doomsday device. ‘Grey goo’ is a misinformed extrapolation of the ‘universal constructor’ posited by the mathematician John von Neumann.

So what is nanotechnology actually doing in the world outside of fiction? Developments at the nanoscale are revolutionising many spheres of science and technology in a variety of ways.

Most widespread is probably its penetration into materials science. The increasingly ubiquitous ‘carbon nanotube’ is bringing the twin benefits of great strength combined with low mass to a variety of applications from the...

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... to ease the transition into a world where this technology becomes commonplace.

If all this comes to pass (as the evidence all seems to suggest that it will), the concept of what it is to be human will be altered irrevocably, with nanotechnology both surrounding us and colonising our bodies. We will then inhabit an existence much like that described by Ray Kurweil in his books on the subject; as he puts it in the tagline to ‘The Singularity is Near’, we will have reached the point where humans will have transcended biology through our technology. From that point on, there is no way of telling where nanotechnology might take us. In the nearer future though, we can expect to be presented with the easier-to-digest phenomenon of items and devices that are smaller, lighter, stronger, faster and more efficient. That will probably be more than enough to cope with for now.