"Protein engineering is a technology of molecular machines - of molecular machines that are part of replicators - and so it comes from an area that already raises some of the issues that nanotechnology will raise"
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Drexler is doing something sly here: he’s laundering the most controversial parts of “nanotechnology” through a domain that already sounds respectable. By framing protein engineering as “a technology of molecular machines,” he collapses the distance between today’s biotech lab and tomorrow’s atom-by-atom fabrication. The phrase “molecular machines” isn’t just a metaphor; it’s a rhetorical bridge. If enzymes, ribosomes, and motor proteins already behave like machines, then the leap to engineered nanomachines starts to look less like sci-fi and more like an engineering roadmap.
The sharper move is the clause “part of replicators.” He’s not merely describing proteins; he’s invoking self-replication, the concept that reliably triggers both utopian fantasies (abundance) and nightmare scenarios (runaway replication, the old “gray goo” dread). By pointing out that protein engineering comes from an area that “already raises some of the issues,” he’s signaling: the ethical, safety, and governance debates aren’t hypothetical. We’ve rehearsed them in biotechnology, with recombinant DNA, GMOs, gain-of-function fears, and biosecurity frameworks. Nanotech won’t invent these dilemmas; it will remix and intensify them.
Context matters because Drexler, as a foundational nanotech evangelist and lightning rod, is often treated as a futurist pitching a radical discontinuity. Here he’s arguing continuity. The intent is pragmatic persuasion: make nanotechnology legible to policymakers and scientists by grounding it in biology’s working proof-of-concept. The subtext: if life already runs on molecular machinery, the real question isn’t whether we can build it, but how we handle it when we do.
The sharper move is the clause “part of replicators.” He’s not merely describing proteins; he’s invoking self-replication, the concept that reliably triggers both utopian fantasies (abundance) and nightmare scenarios (runaway replication, the old “gray goo” dread). By pointing out that protein engineering comes from an area that “already raises some of the issues,” he’s signaling: the ethical, safety, and governance debates aren’t hypothetical. We’ve rehearsed them in biotechnology, with recombinant DNA, GMOs, gain-of-function fears, and biosecurity frameworks. Nanotech won’t invent these dilemmas; it will remix and intensify them.
Context matters because Drexler, as a foundational nanotech evangelist and lightning rod, is often treated as a futurist pitching a radical discontinuity. Here he’s arguing continuity. The intent is pragmatic persuasion: make nanotechnology legible to policymakers and scientists by grounding it in biology’s working proof-of-concept. The subtext: if life already runs on molecular machinery, the real question isn’t whether we can build it, but how we handle it when we do.
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| Topic | Science |
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