A must read for anyone who do not want to have to incomplete picture of the future.
Since the subtopics are a pretty interwoven the book can be a bit repetitive - Especially in the later chapters - but I think it's well structured for the common reader who is new to this topic. To get the picture one must be aware That the same aspects are indeed Mentioned twice or thrice in different contexts are presented in. It therefore contains a bit of the personal story of K. Eric Drexler. The related technical book is: NANOSYSTEMS: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation. With this book he tries to complementary direct the view away from some virulent memes (partly spawned by his first non technical book) to the real meat of our way to atomically precise manufacturing fully fledged. To avoid misunderstandings he tries to use more precise terms this leads to abbreviations like APM and other meaningful techno babble.
Things Which WHERE barely tackled and I missed a bit where:
More details about recycling.
More concrete reasons behind the choice of convergent assembly all the way to the makroscopic level.
Some ideas / plans / engineering questions for introduction of stereotactic control.
More details about why he regards AFM Mainly as distraction. Especially probing tool improvement and MEMS AFMs / MEMS grippers Which Could potentially be a lot faster than AFM Are Not Mentioned at all.
Some engineering Questions About the middle step between
3D DNA & polypeptides & foldamer APM via self-assembly in water and
covalent Carbon & Silicon APM in vacuum via stereotactic control.
Namely pyrite and silicate via stereotactic control in water.
(Do not worry this more complicated stuff is hidden in Appendix I & II)
I critizise E.Drexlers choice of the term "micro block" since it again (like "nano" a term we really Should Avoid for a reason) points to size only. I'd have used the term components since this name contains Their main characterization feature. They are recomposable and recyclable in many ways - composable components so to say. I'd guess making micro blocks / components smaller (a bit submicro sized - E.Drexler mentiones design freedome here) greatly Increases Their genericity and reusability the price is an acceptable space usage efficiency penality.
All in all I highly recommend reading this.
