The government is coming — nanotech regulation

Now up: “Federal Government Regulation of Nanotechnology: Present and Future Trends” by Nancy White of Central Michigan University. She began with “The government is coming.” Areas likely to be regulated are limitation of self-replication and encryption of software used with nanotech. “Foresight’s policies will probably be used by the Federal government.” This pre-planning “should be continued.” She reminded us that new technologies tend to be cleaner/safer than old ones, but the new ones are easier to regulate. At this point, I had to leave the room to go to a meeting, but the remaining glimpses I got were intriguing.