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| View Larger Image | Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology | Paperbackby Eric Drexler (Author)
| List Price: | $15.95 | | Price: | $10.85 | | You Save: | $5.10 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
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| Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Anchor | | Page Count: | 320 Pages | | Publication Date: | October 16, 1987 | | Sales Rank: | 163,918rd |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS | Product Description This brilliant work heralds the new age of nanotechnology, which will give us thorough and inexpensive control of the structure of matter. Drexler examines the enormous implications of these developments for medicine, the economy, and the environment, and makes astounding yet well-founded projections for the future. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 43 reviews)
| Engines of nanotechnology by Mitzi Hass Wakamatsu (Brazil) 5 Stars May 21, 2008 I was actually expecting that this book would fulfill my expectations, on account of a large number of citations I've seen. It's absolutely prerequisite lecture to anyone who's interested in the nano perspectives.
| | Watershed book on the transhumanist movement by Brian Wright (Merrimack, NH USA) 4 Stars November 21, 2007 Engines of Creation describes the foundations of and the issues surrounding humankind's increasing potential for building molecular machines. (Indeed as we stand here on the verge of 2008, notable accomplishments in nanotechnology continue to be made.) Drexler's "starter kit" comprises what he calls "universal assemblers," which are nanomachines designed for a simple task, such as replacing defective genetic links with healthful ones or bonding one cellular structure to another.
...I'm impressed with what the author and his peers have deeply pondered on preventing nanotechnological disasters, either from accident or from conscious intention of some malefactor. When one realizes a technology that can terraform planets can also readily destroy them... and us, one becomes a bit careful in how the technology is handled. The entire Part 3 of Drexler's book, "Engines of Destruction," is devoted to this issue.
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For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]
Brian Wright
Copyright 2007
| | Nano Technology by Paul R. Nelson (Bloomingdale, NJ USA) 5 Stars March 21, 2007 This book was ordered as a gift. I bought the book years ago and was so impressed with it I've purchased several as gifts.
| | too bad it's all balderdash by G. Gonzalez (USA) 1 Stars January 21, 2007 It's been twenty years. Over 50 million bucks have been spent on Nanotechnology, and not a single useful thing has come of it.
Drexler writes really gee-whizzy stuff, but he's basically selling snake oil. Anybody with the basic clue about the law of scale can see most of the nanotech concepts are basically impossible. Meachnical devices can't be scaled down much below the millimeter level-- the basic laws of scale, friction, surface tension, charge, and materials disallows it. So Nanotech guys make microscopic "gears", but no shafts. Shafts, but no gears. "Motors" that can't turn anything. A 5x5 atomic checkerboard, a factor of 100 billion too small to be useful. And so on, and so forth.
It's a clever book, but basically intellectually dishonest. Drexler went on to raise $20 million in venture capital and blew it all. That should give one pause when compared to the "limitless horizons" extolled in this book.
| | Definitely a provocative read! by Green Wizard (Liberated Appalachia) 5 Stars December 10, 2006 I read this book a number of years ago, and it still has a special place in my canon of books on technology and humanity. This is an engaging and lucid look at the future potential, and dangers, of miniturization, nano-scale physics and science meeting together in the form of nanotechnology.
The ideas of molecular construction and deconstruction are truly intriguing and scary. Imagine being disassembled molecule by molecule by a nanoconstructor. Or, the idea of creating a crystal rocket out of pure atoms. This book is full of ideas and potentiality, and the ethical questions are perhaps just the tip of this literary iceberg.
A great read for anyone interested in future technology and how science and technology are fusing on the cutting edge of reality. You don't need to be a quantum physicist or even a PhD to enojy this book. I read it as an undergrad in college and had a good time with it. It even inspired a sci-fi/fantasy book still in progress.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |

| Nanotechnology For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science)) by Richard D. Booker (Author), Earl Boysen (Author)
This title demystifies the topic for investors, business executives, and anyone interested in how molecule-sized machines and processes can transform our lives. Along with dispelling common myths, it covers nanotechnology's origins, how it will affect various industries, and the limitations it can overcome. This handy book also presents numerous applications such as scratch-proof glass, corrosion resistant paints, stain-free clothing, glare-reducing eyeglass coatings, drug delivery systems,...
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| Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation by K. Eric Drexler (Author)
"Devices enormously smaller than before will remodel engineering, chemistry, medicine, and computer technology. How can we understand machines that are so small? Nanosystems covers it all: power and strength, friction and wear, thermal noise and quantum uncertainty. This is the book for starting the next century of engineering." — Marvin Minsky MIT Science magazine calls Eric Drexler "Mr. Nanotechnology." For years, Drexler has stirred controversy by declaring that molecular nanotechnology...
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| Understanding Nanotechnology by Scientific American (Author), editors at Scientific American (Author)
Everyone today knows what technology is, but what is nanotechnology? Taken from the Greek, nano means 'one billionth part of' a whole. In modern parlance, it means very, very small. Nano-tech is the next step after miniaturization. Mobile phones are miniaturized versions of traditional landline phones. Watches are miniature clocks. Desktop computers are miniature versions of the original analogue calculating machines. Miniaturization is common in today's world - in tomorrow's world, nano-tech...
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| The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil (Author)
For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity,...
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| Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea by Mark A. Ratner (Author), Daniel Ratner (Author)
This book is the technical and business overview of tomorrow's scientific breakthrough. The authors survey the scientific research and business aspects of the field, try to explain the key concepts, provide a look at current developments, and give some thoughts on where nanotechnology is likely to go in the next few years. The book will be approachable and witty, with lots of illustrations and examples. The focus of the book is on science and technology, but business is discussed as well. The...
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