bcc@apple.com (BC Crandall) (02/05/91)
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Nanotechnology
and the Culture of Abundance
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 3-8,000 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 The Foresight Institute
David Forrest MIT
Ted Kaehler Apple Corporation
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 food, housing,
transportation, education, health care, energy, the environment, and, perhaps
most important, entertainment.
2. Products should incorporate simple and effective safe guards. 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 April 1991
Notification of acceptance: 6 May 1991
Papers due: 1 July 1991
Send abstracts, including author's name, mailing address (email address if
available), telephone and fax numbers, to BC Crandall, Nanotechnology Project,
PO Box 2178, Sausalito, CA 94965 (or email: bcc@well.sf.ca.us).
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