How to Reduce the Risks of Nanotechnology

This week on Betterhumans, two articles examine the risks of nanotechnology and propose solutions to address them

Nanotechnology holds incredible potential for everything from environmental remediation to medicine. But as nanoscience advances and products hit the market, there's increasing concern about the risks.

This week on Betterhumans, two articles address the risks.

In one, Mike Treder from the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology argues that to properly guide nanotechnology and avoid dangers we need a concerted international development program.

"Most scientists today still believe we may be decades away from building the first replicating assembler. But only a few years ago, it was thought that the Human Genome Project would take most of a century to complete. Things have a way of changing rapidly. Do we dare take the chance of being caught unprepared?" asks Treder.

"CRN's research of all the relevant issues leads us to conclude that the establishment of a single international program to develop molecular manufacturing technology is the safest course. The leading nations of the world would have to agree to join -- or at least not to oppose -- this effort, and a mechanism to detect and deter competing programs would have to be devised," continues Treder. "Will this be easy? Of course it will not. Is it even possible? It had better be."

Betterhumans columnist George Dvorsky agrees that nanotechnology poses dangers. In fact, he thinks the dangers are equivalent to those posed by the atomic bomb.

"The truth is, however, with the eventual advent of full-blown assemblers comes the very real threat of deliberate or accidental misuse of nanotechnology: Microscopic artificial organisms that will be capable of reproducing on a mass scale while devouring the environment," writes Dvorsky. "And no matter what we do to prevent it -- no matter how we regulate, control, contain, or shield ourselves -- we will never have complete confidence that a global catastrophe is unavoidable."

His solution? "We can continue to idealize our ability to contain runaway nanotech or stop its development altogether, or we can get real and start to seriously think about colonizing space."

For all this and more, go to http://www.betterhumans.com. To read Mike Treder's column, go to http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Guests/. To read George Dvorsky's column, go to http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Columns/Transitory_Human/.