Tiny specklike devices could transform computing and medicine, but some people are worried.

What if you could take tiny specks of matter and make them into intelligent machines? The idea has fascinated scientists for decades, including the late physicist Richard Feynman, who wrote about the idea, dubbed nanotechnology. Now, efforts to make the idea real are accelerating, even as warnings about tiny devices are escalating.

Atom by Atom
The primary idea in nanotechnology is that atoms can be treated discretely to build structures, which, in terms of implications for technology, could mean that matter could be manipulated into tiny machines capable of self-replication. Nanotechnology also has broad medical implications. If atoms can be manipulated one by one, then it might be possible to edit DNA, for example, to prevent disease and aging.

As an example of how nanotechnology has already been applied, IBM researchers recently reported that they have been able to shrink circuits down to the atomic level, which could lead to multihundredfold increases in hard disk capacity. Other companies, including Hewlett-Packard, are working with nanotechnology, and NASA has been striking partnerships with organizations involved in nanotechnology research.

Storage isn't the only computing technology where such shrinkage could have broad implications. Nanotechnologists hypothesize that if some of the atoms in a speck of matter could be made to act as electronic switches, then today's computers featuring billions of transistors could give way to computers stocked with much more processing power. A supercomputer the size of a droplet of water might be possible.

As promising as such ideas look to be, some observers see the move toward nanotechnology as a threat--even a potentially apocalyptic one. Sun Microsystems' chief scientist Bill Joy recently said that the fact that components in nanotechnologies can become self-replicating could be a threat to humankind. He suggests, for example, that a molecular-size intelligent machine that can alter DNA could do so harmfully and then replicate to the point where it is out of control, like a runaway virus. He also suggests that nanotechnology may help computers take on human-level intelligence in the coming decades, possibly over-empowering them.

The Corridors of Power
The Web site for the National Nanotechnology Initiative presents many research papers on the promise of nanotechnology, but next to nothing is said about how possible threats from the technology may be best managed. The site's motto is "Shaping the World Atom by Atom."

In a recent speech at the California Institute of Technology, President Clinton said: "The ability to manipulate matter at the atomic and molecular level has broad implications. Imagine the possibilities: materials with ten times the strength of steel and only a small fraction of the weight -- shrinking all the information housed at the Library of Congress into a device the size of a sugar cube--or detecting cancerous tumors when they are only a few cells in size."

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