We were fortunate to have Mike Treder, co-founder of the New York-based Centre for Responsible Nanotechnology (CRN), visiting Melbourne, Sydney, and Canberra last week. Mike spoke to public audiences and small groups, and presented a challenging view of the disruption potentially caused by a revolutionary manufacturing advance such as Molecular Manufacturing.
Whether or not Molecular Manufacturing is feasible is very much open to debate. However, technical feasibility of Molecular Manufacturing is not the important issue. The real message from CRN is that we need to consider the impact of these shifts as we develop the technology – not let technology development and uptake outstrip society’s ability to handle the changes.
The topic of the gap between technology and social capability has been raised before, and everyone typically nods in agreement. The element that CRN adds is a proposal for how policymakers should move to address this gap. Their proposal is summarised in their paper “Three Systems of Action”. Basically it says (1) ensure the product/innovation is safe and not misused, (2) prevent monopolistic control by making it freely available, and (3) allow and encourage further development by all. This makes a lot of sense – but is different from how technologies are typically fostered and developed.
In my view this is the most important message from CRN – and we shouldn’t get distracted by trying to work out if molecular manufacturing is really feasible. That is the wrong question.
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