Greetings to the "new" elite: users of the information superhighway!
The discussions regarding futures with nanotechnology seem to have made an assumption that the people living in this world will be nano-philes, nano-savvy, or aware of the world changing about them.
As far as I would like to venture, it would seem that, no matter how efficiently we might be able to synthesize a house or a car or a turkey tetrazzini from atoms, the same things that are valuable today will contine into the future:
--intelligence--
Having the ability to recognize the tool that sits in front of your face and realize its usefulness. Even then, how easy will it be for someone to tell a nanoassembler how to build a cheeseburger?
How easy will it be for someone to unambiguously communicate their desires? Will the cheeseburger mistakenly turn out to be made of TiN or Starlight Polymer? Will a person just have to say hamburger (or just subvocalize it, or better yet, think it and have it be nano-assembled? [will someone dream of Godzilla and wake up to find Tokoyo destroyed because of a nanoassembler gone awry?]) or will a person need to specify the position of each atom???
--creativity--
Sure, someday nanoassemblers will be build that will allow us to create any foodstuff imaginable. Why do I worry that the majority of the populatio will be satisfied with nano-assembled Twinkies or a nano-assembled can of Lite beer? Will nanotechnology foster a blossoming of human achievement and existence, or will it bring about an explosion of easy living--a mushrooming of mediocrity?
--common sense--
I can't see how nanotechnology would help improve the quantities of this stuff in the universe? It would be nice, though...
Regards,
Chris W Thomas
Fetish item that I'd buy in a minute: A VCR for dreams. Anybody out there that has a lead on this one, get in touch with me. I don't know about the possibility of this coming around soon, but a boy can dream, neh?