Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology

Engines of Creation (ISBN 0-385-19973-2) is a seminal molecular nanotechnology book written by K. Eric Drexler in 1986. The foreword is by Marvin Minsky of MIT. It has been translated into Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Chinese.[1] Image File history File links Engines_of_Creation. ... Image File history File links Engines_of_Creation. ... It has been suggested that Molecular engineering be merged into this article or section. ... Kim Eric Drexler (born April 25, 1955) is an American engineer best known for popularizing the potential of hypothetical molecular nanotechnology. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ...

Drexler's 1992 book, Nanosystems: molecular machinery, manufacturing, and computation, (ISBN 0-471-57518-6) is a much more technical treatment of similar material. Nanosystems addresses chemical, thermodynamic, and other constraints on nanotechnology and manufacturing. 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

Engines of Creation is unique for its style and substance. It makes oblique literary references; the section on hypertext references the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem Xanadu: The Ballad of Kubla Khan while discussing the concepts first developed by the Project Xanadu while never mentioning Coleridge by name. A section on life extension is entitled "Worlds Enough And Time" but never names the Andrew Marvell poem from which the phrase is adapted ("To His Coy Mistress"). Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet, 1795 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (October 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834) (pronounced ) was an English poet, critic, and philosopher who was, along with his friend William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England and one of the Lake Poets. ... Project Xanadu was founded by Ted Nelson in 1960 as the original hypertext project. ... Life extension refers to an increase in maximum or average lifespan, especially in humans, by slowing down or reversing the processes of aging. ... Andrew Marvell (March 31, 1621 – August 16, 1678) was an English metaphysical poet, and the son of an Anglican clergyman. ... To His Coy Mistress is a poem written by the British author and Puritan statesman Andrew Marvell (1621 – 1678) either during or just before the Interregnum. ...

The substance of Engines of Creation is unique as well. Various science fiction writers have used the concept of tiny machines. Physicist Richard Feynman discussed the concept of recursive miniaturisation in his 1959 speech There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. But only Drexler came up with the idea of using molecular machinery for large-scale fabrication. Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 in Queens, New York – February 15, 1988 in Los Angeles, California) (surname pronounced FINE-man; in IPA) was an influential American physicist known for expanding greatly on the theory of quantum electrodynamics, particle theory, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium. ... In 1959, Richard Feynman gave the first talk on nanotechnology, entitled Theres Plenty of Room at the Bottom[1]. He considered the possibility of direct manipulation of individual atoms as a more powerful form of synthetic chemistry. ...

Engines of Creation (Chapter 10, Limits to Growth) takes a realistic Malthusian view of exponential growth within limits to growth. It also promotes space advocacy arguing that, because the universe is essentially infinite, life can escape the limits to growth defined by Earth. Additionally, Engines of Creation supports a form of the Fermi paradox, arguing that as there is no evidence of alien civilizations: The Rev. ... In mathematics, a quantity that grows exponentially is one whose growth rate is always proportional to its current size. ... Limits to Growth was a 1972 book modeling the consequences of a rapidly growing world population and finite resource supplies, commissioned by the Club of Rome. ... Space advocacy is a political position that favors the exploration, utilization, and colonization of outer space. ... A graphical representation of the Arecibo message - Humanitys first attempt to communicate its existence to alien civilizations The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for or contact with such civilizations. ...

"Thus for now, and perhaps forever, we can make plans for our future without concern for limits imposed by other civilizations"

It is in this book Drexler first published his famous prediction of what might happen if a molecular nanotechnology were used to build uncontrollable self-replicating machines - the "gray goo" scenario. An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus in 1798 started the fears of a Malthusian catastrophe where overpopulation returns people to mere subsistence. ... // Grey goo refers to a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all living matter on Earth while building more of themselves (a scenario known as ecophagy). ...

With the publication of Engines of Creation Drexler founded the first group for preparing society for molecular nanotechnology. Drexler took the unusual step of securing permission from the publisher to include the post office box for the Foresight Institute, a group that did not yet exist. This article reads like an advertisement, and therefore is not neutral in tone. ...

Engines of Creation is often abbreviated "EOC" in online discussions.

External links

• Full text of the book
  • Full text in Russian: МАШИНЫ СОЗДАНИЯ: Грядущая эра нанотехнологии
  • Full text in Italian: MOTORI DI CREAZIONE: L’era prossima della nanotecnologia
  • Full text in Chinese: 创造的发动机