from the sufficient-unto-the-day dept.
Richard Smalley, Nobel-laureate researcher into carbon nanotubes at Rice University, recently appeared as a panelist on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation – Science Friday" program (11 August 2000). In response to a question about the concerns that nanotechnology might get out of control, Smalley responded:
"Most of the discussion, at least in my experience, ends up coming back to the self replicating out of control robots, and I think that that, at the moment, is a silly concern."
In response to a question about the concerns that nanotechnology might get out of control, Smalley responded:
"Most of the discussion, at least in my experience, ends up coming back to the self replicating out of control robots, and I think that that, at the moment, is a silly concern.
"There are more substantive concerns that almost certainly will come out, pretty much in direct proportion to the power of the technologies that are evolving.
"It is true that it seems as though almost anything can be done if one can position atoms in the right place, but it's not going to be simple and overnight. So I think there will be time to become alerted to dangers as they arise and to deal with them, in many ways much like this issue has come up in genetic engineering and earlier aspects in biotech."
