A recent online poll by COSMOS magazine asked people what they thought would be the most likely cause to the end of humanity. In a good sign for nanotechnology, only 4% of people thought that nano “grey goo” would be the catastrophic cause. The term “grey goo” referes to the potential exponential growth of self-replicating nanobots, highlighted in many science fiction stories incorporating nanotechnology such as Michael Crichton’s Prey. The man who coined the term, Eric Drexler, has said that “An obsession with obsolete science-fiction images of swarms of replicating nanobugs has diverted attention from the real issues raised by the coming revolution in molecular nanotechnologies,” said Drexler. “We need to focus on the issues that matter—how to deal with these powerful new capabilities in a competitive world.”
In perhaps not such a great sign for humanity, the leading predicted cause of our eventual downfall was human induced climate change (35%), which for me personally is certainly a much more concerning problem which requires immediate action than the sci-fi version of swarms of marauding nanobots!
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