Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization by K Eric Drexler
Format: mobi/epub
Genre: Science/Nanotechnology
Print Length: 368 pages
Release Date: 7 May 2013
K. Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology - the science of engineering on a molecular level. In Radical Abundance, he shows how rapid scientific progress is about to change our world. Thanks to atomically precise manufacturing, we will soon have the power to produce radically more of what people want, and at a lower cost. The result will shake the very foundations of our economy and environment.
Already, scientists have constructed prototypes for circuit boards built of millions of precisely arranged atoms. The advent of this kind of atomic precision promises to change the way we make things - cleanly, inexpensively, and on a global scale. It allows us to imagine a world where solar arrays cost no more than cardboard and aluminum foil, and laptops cost about the same.
A provocative tour of cutting edge science and its implications by the field's founder and master, Radical Abundance offers a mind-expanding vision of a world hurtling toward an unexpected future.
Contents:
PART 1 AN UNEXPECTED WORLD
CHAPTER 1 Atoms, Bits, and Radical Abundance
CHAPTER 2 An Early Journey of Ideas
CHAPTER 3 From Molecules to Nanosystems
PART 2 THE REVOLUTION IN CONTEXT
CHAPTER 4 Three Revolutions, and a Fourth
CHAPTER 5 The Look and Feel of the Nanoscale World
CHAPTER 6 The Ways We Make Things
PART 3 EXPLORING DEEP TECHNOLOGY
CHAPTER 7 Science and the Timeless Landscape of Technology
CHAPTER 8 The Clashing Concerns of Engineering and Science
CHAPTER 9 Exploring the Potential of Technology
PART 4 THE TECHNOLOGY OF RADICAL ABUNDANCE
CHAPTER 10 The Machinery of Radical Abundance
CHAPTER 11 The Products of Radical Abundance
PART 5 THE TRAJECTORY OF TECHNOLOGY
CHAPTER 12 Today's Technologies of Atomic Precision
CHAPTER 13 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Future...
CHAPTER 14 How to Accelerate Progress
PART 6 BENDING THE ARC OF THE FUTURE
CHAPTER 15 Transforming the Material Basis of Civilization
CHAPTER 16 Managing a Catastrophic Success
CHAPTER 17 Security for an Unconventional Future
CHAPTER 18 Changing Our Conversation About the Future
Author:
K. Eric Drexler developed, named, and popularized the concept of nanotechnology. Currently at the Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology at Oxford University, Drexler is a frequent public speaker on scientific issues, addressing audiences of politicians, business leaders, scientists, and engineers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
