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This Technology Could Become an “Engine of Destruction”
The truth is darker than you imagine
Pandora’s box — a term we now use to describe an object which brings great and unexpected consequences — was not a box at all. The original Greek story describes it as a terracotta jar. Pandora herself is, according to the Greek myth, the first woman on Earth. The Gods have bestowed upon her a bounty of blessings to the point where her very name means “the one who bears all gifts”. Nevertheless, it is Pandora who opens the jar, believing it to be filled with more good fortunes from the gods. In reality it becomes the source of all evil and hardship in the world.
There is in development a technology much like Pandora’s jar. On the surface it seems to be capable of solving all of humanity’s problems: it will extend our lives indefinitely, human labor will no longer be necessary, people will instantly have any object they need, international trade will no longer be needed, powerful rockets will arise, militaries will become increasingly efficient and more powerful, we’ll be able to produce energy abundantly, most diseases and bodily injuries will have a cure, and much, much more. All thanks to the same single technology. Its phenomenal potential is why engineer and researcher Eric Drexler called it, first and foremost, an “engine of creation”. Yet at the same time there was another side to this technology, a darker and more disturbing possibility many of us may not have considered.
It’s the reason why he also called it an “engine of destruction”.
Drexler was talking about nanotechnology. It’s a label that’s so overused that many researchers are asking for stricter control of the term. As the father of nanotechnology itself, Drexler even complained that the word has lost its meaning because almost anyone could use it to make their products seem more cutting-edge and appealing. True nanotechnology describes molecular assemblers, or microscopic machines that can manipulate individual atoms. Nanotech is made of machines that, powered by sunlight or other fuels, can create anything from common materials. This is not dissimilar to how…
