josh@cs.rutgers.edu (04/20/91)
+---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The following material is reprinted *with permission* from the | | Foresight Update No 11, 4/15/91. | | Copyright (c) 1991 The Foresight Institute. All rights reserved. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ Nanotechnology and the Culture of Abundance by BC Crandall Applied nanotechnology (the mechanical capability to engineer matter at the molecular level) will change every aspects of life as we know it. But all such change will come from specific products, designed and created for particular purposes. Call for Papers Contributions are solicited for a collection of papers aimed at the popular science market that describe products and applications that molecular-scale engineering will make possible. Describe your vision of a particular nanotechnological device, how it works, and how it will change our world. This book is intended for intelligent individuals who may not be familiar with nanotechnology, but could grasp the concept from a few paragraphs. Potential contributors are asked to submit an abstract of 300-600 words. Abstracts will be judged as to (1) clarity of presentation, (2) technical accuracy and completeness, (3) scale of potential cultural impact, and (4) wow factor. Keep it real, but make it flashy. Contributors with the most promising abstracts will be asked to develop papers of 3,000-8,000 words. Artwork is encouraged. The collected papers will be published under the title: Nanotechnology and the Culture of Abundance. Abstracts and papers will be reviewed by: Eric Drexler Foresight Institute David Forrest MIT Ted Kaehler Apple Computer Ralph Merkle Xerox PARC Jeffrey Soreff IBM While writing abstracts and papers, keep in mind the following suggestions: 1. Products should be items that people already want. Consider housing, transportation, education, health care, energy, food, the environment, and, perhaps most important, entertainment. 2. Products should incorporate simple and effective safeguards. Products should not appear able to "get loose" or present any environmental dangers. Safety factors should be intrinsic and obvious without undue explanation. Products should be clearly limited to doing only what they are designed to do. 3. Products should be a potential reality within the next 50 years. Include an approximate time of arrival based on your estimate of technology's trajectory. Highlight any particularly noteworthy hurdles that must be overcome or enabling technologies that must be in place. Abstracts due: 1 May 1991 Notification of acceptance: 6 June 1991 Papers due: 1 August 1991 Send abstracts, including author's name, mailing address (and email address if available), telephone and fax numbers, to BC Crandall, Nanotechnology Project, PO Box 2178, Sausalito, CA 94965 USA (or email: bcc@well.sf.ca.us). +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Copyright (c) 1991 The Foresight Institute. All rights reserved. | | The Foresight Institute is a non-profit organization: Donations | | are tax-deductible in the United States as permitted by law. | | To receive the Update and Background publications in paper form, | | send a donation of twenty-five dollars or more to: | | The Foresight Institute, Department U | | P.O. Box 61058 | | Palo Alto, CA 94306 USA | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+