© 2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Ralph C. Merkle, Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, Landes Bioscience, Georgetown, TX, 2004.

6.3 Arguments Against a Focused Design Effort

Arguments opposing a focused design effort include the propositions that molecular assemblers are too dangerous (Section 6.3.1), are impossible (Section 6.3.2), or have not yet been demonstrated (Section 6.3.3), that early design will not speed development (Section 6.3.4), that assemblers would be no better than conventional alternatives (Section 6.3.5), that potential design errors would make the analysis inherently worthless (Section 6.3.6), that macroscale-inspired machinery won’t work at the nanoscale (Section 6.3.7), and that the design is too obvious (Section 6.3.8). We review these arguments here and find them to be unconvincing. Indeed, many of them are demonstrably unfounded.

Last updated on 1 August 2005