Like Mary Shelley, you speak to the eternal debate between the humanist and the scientist - the problem being that humanity is defined in large part by its mastery of science (going back to the taming of fire) but can also be undone by science, as the twentieth century made abundantly clear. We read Prey as a Frankenstein for our times. Often, I don’t want to be writing a particular book, but there I am, writing it anyway. I don’t usually feel as if I have a choice, or much control of what comes out. I tend to write books that grab me by the throat and force me to write them. Of all the disturbing subjects you’ve explored in your career, is it these small, insidious things that concern you the most? Because the problem in Prey, as in The Andromeda Strain, seems more tangible, more of a problem that we all need to deal with and think about now, then the problem of, say, revenant dinosaurs? It even may be possible to move your house on the backs of millions of nanomachines, creeping across the lawn.” In this vision of the future, roving nanomachines will convert trash dumps to energy solar nanomachines will coat your house, generating electricity flexible nanomachines will provide earthquake protection. Temperature-sensitive clothing will loosen when it gets hot, insulate when it gets cold. Your personal computer and your watch will be painted on your arm. You can walk through the walls of your house, since they are composed of particle clouds. Windows will lighten or darken at will programmable paint will change color. Living spaces will be transformed, with self-cleaning dishes and carpets and permanently clean bathrooms. Nonsurgical nanoprocesses could even perform liposuction and body reshaping. Other nanomachines will lighten or darken skin color at will, removing blemishes, birthmarks and liver spots in the process still others could cleanse the mouth and eliminate bad breath. Cosmetically, you will change your hair color with an injection of nanomachines that circulate through the body, moving melanocytes in hair follicles. The potential benefits are spectacular: Tiny robots may crawl through your arteries, cutting away atherosclerotic plaque powerful drugs will be delivered to individual cancer cells, leaving other cells undamaged teeth will be self-repairing. In the 21st century, they will change our world totally. Experts predict that these tiny machines will provide everything from miniaturized computer components to new medical treatments to new military weapons. Such machines would be 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. “These organisms will be created by nanotechnology, perhaps the most radical technology in human history: the quest to build man-made machines of extremely small size, on the order of 100 nanometers, or 100/billionths of a meter.
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