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Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology
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Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology | Paperback

by Eric Drexler (Author)

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Binding:  Paperback
Publisher:  Anchor
Page Count:  320 Pages
Publication Date:  October 16, 1987
Sales Rank:  147,500th

FEATURES

  • ISBN13: 9780385199735
  • Condition: NEW
  • Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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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 20, 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. ... 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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