Freitas CTF Essay

From Wise Nano

Molecular Manufacturing: Too Dangerous to Allow?

This is a summary of the first CRN Task Force essay by Robert A. Freitas Jr (he will have two more in the next issue of Nanotechnology Perceptions); the full essay can be found online at KurzweilAI.net and can be downloaded as a PDF.

Freitas begins by surveying the dangers of molecular manufacturing, especially grey goo. He then asserts that attempts to relinquish molecular manufacturing would be ill-advised, because they would fail, and would slow or even prevent anti-goo research.

Freitas gives examples of how restricting research into military technologies has hurt the country that restricted the research, while openness has helped the open country retain a lead.

He then gives a number of examples of technologies that exist on a continuum including both safe and dangerous versions.

Freitas makes two observations about replicators. First, replicators are not new: humanity has been using yeast and other life forms for centuries. Second, replicators (at least engineered replicators) can be made inherently safe, for example by requiring “vitamins” not found in nature, and making them incapable of storing their entire blueprint. Freitas does recommend prohibiting replicators that are not inherently safe.

Freitas includes six pages of references and footnotes, including a lengthy note on computer malware writers.