Nanotech market performance and the molecular manufacturing future

As soon as the NASDAQ and S&P 500 get into new highs this year, we should see the nanotech index and ETF (PXN) go with the same bullish trend and keep breaking new performance records for this year.

Powershares Lux Nanotech ETF (PXN - AMEX) chart:


About the Productive Nanosystems film that was released on the net and some commentaries left on the Nano Dot site.

Biology and evolution may have the only correct and pratical answer to the molecular manufacturing problems we have today.

The commentary of anonimouse really brings some questions to the table.
I do believe that we should go and replicate the way biology handles molecular manufacturing and avoid making serious mistakes by trying to replicate the old production line method.

Anonimouse comment:

...
Macro production lines are set up by engineers and technicians using their hands and eyes, in good light, to get things working. Then they can turn out the lights and let things run until something breaks. But even when the lights are out, the production line has its own sensors and limit switches to provide sensory feedback; without them it can’t run.

Engineers and technicians need sensory feedback loops (eyes, ears, and hands) and macro-scale actuators (hands and tools) to set things up and running, based on a design. The power for setup is provided by human muscles, electric motors (DeWalt), and petroleum-fueled motors (Caterpillar).

The movie shows a factory that can’t be set up in the first place, because there’s no sensory feedback loop available to do the setup, and no tools to do the setup.

In contrast, biology works because evolution provides the sensory feedback loop (survive and breed, or not) to set up the machinery through many generations of modification-trial and failure-culling/success-reproduction, and random motion of complicated molecules in water provides the actuation to set up the machinery. Chemical reactions in water provide the power both for setting up the machinery and for running the machinery.

Read it here

New posts on Responsible Nanotechnology:

Two new papers written by Eric Drexler, published in scientific journals:
Drexler on Physics and Computation

Nanoscale Assembly Line Control

Total Flake, or Genius?