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                The Six Million Dollar Amoeba - NanoCyborgs
                               by Wes Thomas
                          From Mondo 2000 #12 1994

       Transcribed to the electronic media by Swedish Infomania 1995
        
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        Imagine a new breed of humans, sleek and invincible, with the
equivalent of multiple crays built into their heads. The ultimate
transhuman, who can choose the design, form, and substance of his/her own
body. We're talking cybernetic enhancement - way beyond today's mechanical
implants. Within five years, there will be micromachines that connect
directly to any body tissue, even the brain. We'll fuse with our technology
in a sort of strange symbiosis. Shades of Robocop, Blade Runner and Six
Million Dollar Man. But micromachines are constrained by the top-down
approach: taking existing technology and miniaturizing it. There's a limit
how far down you can go. Nanomachine development and molecular construction
transcend this limit. Nanotech builds from the bottom up - assembling
molecules into exquisite machine-like components. Eventually, we'll see
nano-sized biocompatible molecular computers. Welcome to the coming
nanorevolution. In Prozac nation, who could resist the temptation of
mood-altering bioware? Who would want to? Why mess around with chemical
drugs at all? Injectable nanosystems, linking human nerve tissue to
molecular computers - the ultimate machine/human symbiosis. Self-regulated
ecstasy. Dial-an-orgasm. The elimination of disease. Even eternal life. But
who will decide which of the 20 billion or so people get access to this
ultimate alchemy? Are we ready for Homo sapiens triage? And what genocidal
twisted Dr. Mengele of the future will emerge to create ghastly nanogenetic
mutations in his/her desktop nanofoundry and hatch the nanobermensch?

        To find out what heady schemes these nanorevolutionaries are up to,
I visited Charles Ostman recently at his Berkeley hillside lair. Charles is
the archetypical midnight engineer, surrounded by purring hardware and
abandoned pizza boxes tat may well be cultures for some exotic new
lifeforms. He was the designer (with Dr. Scott Davis at U.C.Berkeley) of a
"synaptic simulator" optical correlator - a hot-rodded neural network. With
Dr. Dave Johnson of Tini Metals, he pioneered the use of nitinol
shape-changing metals in prosthetic medical devices. Currently, he's a
consultant to nanothinc of San Francisco where he's conjuring computer
software to visualize Buckyballs and future nanostructures. When he talks
about nanotech, Charles' eyes light up and leap around. This guy is
seriously crazed. So what is he? Bugle boy for the lifesaving nanite brigade
or crazed trumpeter of the apocalypse? You be the judge.

[Here's some rather nice illustrations, which I think would not look so
 nice in ASCII-graphics, so I'll just recite the picture texts for you.]

1) Cochlear implant snakes inside cochlea, connecting with auditory nerve
   to enhance hearing.
2) Implantable micro-sensors measure strain on tendons and ligaments to
   redistribute muscle loads and prevent strain.
3) Intelligent chemical-sensing micromachines deliver precise dosages of
   drugs.
4) Nanite attack squads mark invading cells for attack by other nanite
   components.
5) Sperm electrocution device in seminal vesicle zaps sperm upon
   ejaculation for birth control.
6) Deposited on a surface, shape-changing alloys perform kinetic tasks
   similar to muscle tissue.
7) Mechanical scrubber (250 microns) patrols an artery, prepared to scrape
   off plaque deposits.
8) Intelligent nanocrystal poised to engulf invading alien organisms.
9) Nano-synthesized "user friendly" viruses could correct errant cell
   behavior.

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              [ Interview with Charles Ostman by Mondo 2000: ]

MONDO 2000: OK, Charles, let me get this straight: you believe a
nanotechnology revolution is coming in the near future that will
fundamentally change life on earth as we know it.

CO: Well, what I really said was that micromachines and molecular
construction will affect virtually every aspect of current-day technology I
mean from molecular scale supercomputers to self-assembling materials.

M2: What's the most exciting frontier at this moment?

CO: I'd say that lies in potential modifications made directly to the human
body. This will be a major change in fundamental engineering. It will
involve computer scientists, physicists, chemists and biotech engineers
working in concert. Their roles will completely change. This is a huge
all-encompassing thing.

M2: OK, what's available right now?

CO: R&D labs have already created a variety of microcomponents ranging in
size from 50 to 300 microns [a micron is a millionth of a meter-eds.].
We're talking about gears, motors, valves, pumps, sensors, mechanical
actuators, propulsion devices, microelectronic circuitry (even
microcomputers), and power supply components. These components can be
constructed into microassemblies that can be injected or implanted in your
body to do various repair and maintenance jobs.

M2: What stage of development are they at?

CO: Electronic pacemakers, other implants, and miniature prosthetic devices
have been standard medical procedure for years. Ultraminiature cochlear ear
implants allow thousands of deaf people to hear for the first time.
Injectable blood gas monitoring sensors are now available. In physical
therapy, implantable micro strain gauges and related circuitry now allow
real time tension measurements in tendons and ligaments. We really are
converging on the bionic man idea.
        The University of Trondheim in Norway and the V.A. Islet Transplant
Center in Los Angeles have co-developed the world's first implantable
micromachine insulin-dispensing devices. Things like this could be used to
keep a constant amount of other drugs in your body as well. And the
applications of micromachines in general are wide open. There's even Neue
Technologien, a German electronics manufacturer that has invented a seminal
duct implant designed to electrocute sperm before they leave the body. A
current activated by the flow of seminal fluid shocks the sperm into
sterility. They're looking for volunteers to test it, by the way.

M2: Ouch! I'll pass. So what's coming next?

CO: Intelligent devices that move around the body on their own accord.
They'll have chemical sensors and take the appropriate action when the
desired chemical stimulus is detected. These functions can include immuno
and antigen sensors to mimic the action of your immune system. They may be
able to chemically sense viruses or infected cells and destroy them. Or
they could sense and destroy cell groups that are rapidly dividing-tumors.

M2: How small can they go?

CO: The bottom limit of miniaturization is about .1 micron. Microlithography
fabrication technologies begin to fall below this point, mainly because of
the "raggedness" of the micro surfaces and edges of an etched substrate.
        What is needed is a new approach. Currently, micromachinery
components are being produced using a "top down" manufacturing process
which entails making components smaller and smaller.
        Future construction will be from "bottom up" or molecular
construction, atom by atom. This is where the true nanorevolution begins. A
nanomachine will occupy a relative volume of one billionth the size of that
occupied by a current micromachine of equivalent functionality.

M2: What could be done with this nanotech approach?

CO: Since molecules with specific reaction sites can be synthesized,
virtually any biochemical task in the body could be accomplished. These
"nanites ' could even be designed to chemically communicate with each other
and respond to cues in the body. They will also be designed to assemble
into different groups to perform various physiological functions. For
example, a group at MIT has successfully created self-replicating molecular
structures in a molecular soup. They start out with a series of compounds
where a set of larger molecules actually forms smaller pieces into
identical molecules. These are very simple molecular structures but
nanotechnologists are planning to create much larger complex molecular
assemblies in the near future.

M2: Wait a minute-do you mean to say that Nanocyborgs are here?!

CO: Not quite-real-world nanotech-based systems are at least 10 years away.
But interim technologies are already here. Carbon atom structures called
"fullerenes" (named after futurist Buckminster Fuller) have been
discovered. The pioneer in fullerene research is Dr. Richard Smalley, a
researcher from Rice University. He now provides commercial access to
custom fullerenes (for about $1000 per gram). You can actually fax him the
specs for a molecule and get back fullerene powder in a Fed-Ex package.
These have broad potential applications, such as the ability to surround or
contain atoms of other elements. You'll deliver a specific element to a
molecular site for a specific purpose. For example, you could deliver a
photonic-sensitive fullerene compound to a cancer cell cluster and then
rupture it with a controlled pulse of laser light. This would release the
oxygen and destroy the cancer cell.

M2: How about jacking the brain into a computer?

CO: There have already been experiments in which a completely blind
patient's optic nerve fibers were connected to a computerdriven dot-matrix
display and he could actually see crude patterns.
        Let's take it into the speculative realm of the future. Imagine
what happens when molecular computing is advanced enough that you can embed
a nanocomputer in the brain. By controlling the voltage-controlled sodium
ion exchange process at neural synapses, you could achieve advanced sensory
extensions and eventually even thinking abilities. At the atomic-dimension
sizes of the nanomechanical logic components, the amount of integration you
can have in a given unit skyrockets. In the same space, you can fit a
billion times more stuff than on a current microchip. We'll eventually have
nanocomputers that run at teraHertz-that's up to 1000 times faster than
current computers. They'll store the equivalent of terabytes of information
and run on extremely minute amounts of power from the brain itself. Imagine
having an array of virtual Cray computers in your head-more powerful than
all the computers on the planet today combined, and all running in
parallel!

M2: How many Crays could you put in your head?

CO: ...or anywhere else in the body, for that matter. Well, a nanocomputer
should have the equivalent processing capability of one Cray per cubic
micron. So there's really no practical limit. Power wouldn't be a problem
either. Each nanocomputer would use only about 10^-21 joules (watts/sec.),
which could be powered by the body's own cellular electrochemistry. You
wouldn't have to run them constantly-specific ones could be fired up for
emergencies or other tasks, as required.
        Plus you could have an embedded holographic optical correlator that
learns automatically and that's millions of times more powerful than the
existing neural networks that handle complex visual and other pattern
recognition tasks. You could extend your senses to input gigabytes of data
directly into the brain in real time. A potential outcome in the far future
might be that you could even upload your mind into a nanocomputer system.

M2: Straight out of Brainstorm. So how would you interface neurons with
these devices? That's a trick.

CO: First you want to get nerve cells to physically bond to circuitry
so that you can interact with the neural signals. There have been
some recent breakthroughs in solving the biocompatibility problem
of interfacing inorganic materials (like silicon, metals, or plastics) to
nerve cells. A precise photoreagent process generates "tethers" that
attach themselves to the target biomolecules (peptides, enzymes,
etc.). The idea is to induce specific nerve cells to actually grow onto
a grid pattern...

M2: ...like a garden trellis?

CO: Yes! Once you do that, you can connect nerve cells to miniaturized
signal processors and computers to monitor and control specific groups of
neurons and specific brain functions or even enhance general capabilities
like thinking and memory. IF you want to, you can alter sensory perception,
your mood, or even your state of mind.

M2: Sounds scary. There's going to be a certain critical threshold with
neural enhancements, isn't there? The smart will get infinitely smarter and
develop even more powerful neural and other enhancements, becoming powerful
nanogeniuses, and the rest of us...

CO: Sure. Obviously not everyone will have equal access to this, especially
regarding neural enhancements.

M2: Sounds like the Alphas and Epsilons of Brave New World. So what are
some really far out applications of this stuff?

CO: In the further future we may see nanite symbiosis. Different
nanite species can interact with each other and assemble and
reassemble into something else, depending on their chemical
messages. Nanite components could reside anywhere or everywhere,
and be able to form larger organisms as needed. Nanite "species"
may form an entire society. They may be airborne (like pollen
grains) and may land on or be breathed in by the human recipient.
The boundary between organic and inorganic cell objects will
become ever more diffuse.

M2: OK, great, so now we have what - 10 to 20 years to design our
anti-nano defenses before relentless ubiquitous nanites alter the very
process of life itself on Earth and meddle irrevocably with our DNA?

CO: Well, at the frontiers of biotech, designer DNA is already well
underway. A logical extension would be the construction of
complete genomes and then of course custom organisms, including the
genetic enhancement of human beings. Nanotech will make all this
infinitely more efficient, because nanites could be designed to
interact with genetic processes on the molecular level. If you thought
Clinton's health plan was controversial, wait till nanotech hits!

M2: So who will control all this? Hopefully not the FDA, drug companies, or
insurance companies.

CO: That's the key question. Nanotech even makes current economic systems
obsolete. Right now, power and influence in the world are based on the
control of natural and industrial resources. The coin of the realm of the
future will consist of access to nanotech, which will make it possible to
synthesize any physical object cheaply and easily or alter your body or
anything else in an infinite variety of ways. This will be a major blow to
the current power structure. And that may make nanotech very unpopular with
them.

M2: Well, anything to free people from multinational corporate domination.

CO: Right, but it won't necessarily happen that way. Take the oil industry
as an example. We know that automobiles can run on alcohol, which can be
grown cheaply with sugar cane or corn. But the oil companies are so
powerful because of their monopoly, they've influenced our government to
sweep alternative energy breakthroughs under the carpet. With molecular
enhancements, what happens when people can live to 200 years or more? Who
gets to have nanoimplants? How old will we be allowed to live? 500 years?
1000 years? This is extremely controversial, very scary. Many researchers
will feel compelled to keep it all secret. They're afraid of an uninformed
and emotional public suddenly encroaching on their research. It could
definitely create a new elite. Or it could sink into an ever more obscure
underground.

M2: Tell us the scary stuff!

CO: You mean nanotech black markets, international nanoterrorists, nanite
aerosol warfare. . .

M2: Yes, aIl that stuff!

CO: Oh, I'm afraid that's just where I'm non-disclosed.

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                     Tooling up for the Nano-revolution
                             by Charles Ostman

        The micromachine industry is zooming. Frost&Sullivan has forecasted
worldwide revenues of over $1 billion for 1993 and $3 billion for 1998. The
industry is already equipped to start fabrications of micromechanical
chips. Existing microlithography techniques for etching silicon wafers can
be used to etch out single-piece micromechanical components such as
tweezers, grippers, and vibrating vanes from silicon. Now it's just a
question of market demand and economics. A key issue in this development
process is establishing a library of microcomponents. A microcybernetic
device designer could have access to these to construct a complete
self-contained micromachine system. The already-existing realm of
microscale electrochemical biosensors is diverse. It is rapidly expanding
to include ion- and enzyme-selective components and immunosensor devices
that can allow an intelligent machine to respond to a particular chemical
event stimulus. For instance, a new class of chemically sensitive
transistors, chemFETs (chemically stimulated field effect transistors), are
already commercially available. And microsensor devices capable of
detecting extremely small fluctuations in pressure, flow rate, photonic
stimulation, and temperature are standard components for today's
micromachine designers. Existing chip manufacturing facilities already make
all this feasible. Substrate foundry and lithographic fabrication
equipment, which are currently used for producing integrated circuits, can
be used to develop mask patterns for microcomponents and has
microfabrication systems for mass productions of complex microassemblies.
Dukane of St. Charles, IL has developed microrobotic assembly systems
capable of resolving repeatable motion paths of 0.1 micron over a total
work area envelope of 115x50x50 mm. These can handle and assemble
microcomponents. Researchers at the Centre d'Elaboration des Materiaux et
d'Etudes Structurales in France have succeeded in producing an incredible
array of gold conductors under 50 nm wide and 15 nm thick, embedded in a
silicon substrate. Electrical conductors at this scale allow for creating
ultraminiaturized 3-D electronic circuits and are potential connector sites
for neural fiber attachment. Intelligent membranes and gels are being
developed that can change size or molecular porosity based on chemical, pH,
electrical, or thermal stimulus. Responding to very minute variations in
applied current, these membranes can be programmed to allow for an entire
range of molecular porosities with the same piece of gel. This process not
only provides an excellent mechanism for acquiring a very specific chemical
sample (such as oxygen level) for measuring, but more importantly, can also
serve as a molecular dispensing system for delivery of drugs, or any other
type of chemical compound. Microscale gel fibers has also demonstrated
substantial programmable volume displacement and kinetic properties. For
instance, gel fibers 1 micron thick have been successfully fabricated.
These can shrink down to 4% of their original volume in less than a
microsecond when triggered by an electrochemical reaction. This type of
property lets them serve as components for valves or propulsion devices.
Taking it into the nanotech realm, Japan's Ministry of International Trade
and Industry (MITI) launched the ten-year, $200 million Atom Technology
Project in 1991 to develop new atomic structures and ultra high vacuum
chambers. Other researchers like Xerox Parc are already conceiving nanotech
solutions for medical problems. In the future, molecular constructions
consisting of hundreds or thousands atoms per component can be assembled
and reassembled to fulfill an almost infinite variety of molecular-scale
construction tasks. It will be a sort of molecular Lego set that will allow
us to build new compounds and reconstruct the biochemical components of
life itself.

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Write to: The Foresight Institute, PO Box Palto Alto, CA 61058, USA
          Tel: (415) 917-1122 Fax: (415)  917-1123
          E-Mail: foresight@cup.portal.com

This is K. Eric Drexler's own organization that aims to "chart a safe path
through the potential upheavals and reap the benefits of nanotechnology."
They are intrested in open discussion of the powerful implications of the
technology.
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