Kim Eric Drexler (born April 25, 1955) is an American engineer best known for introducing

molecular nanotechnology Molecular nanotechnology (MNT) is a technology based on the ability to build structures to complex, atomic specifications by means of mechanosynthesis. This is distinct from nanoscale materials. Based on Richard Feynman's vision of miniature ...

(MNT), and his studies of its potential from the 1970s and 1980s. His 1991 doctoral thesis at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT) was revised and published as the book ''Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery Manufacturing and Computation'' (1992), which received the

Association of American Publishers The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the national trade association of the American book publishing industry. AAP lobbies for book, journal, and education publishers in the United States. AAP members include most of the major commercia ...

award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992. He has been called the "godfather of nanotechnology".

Life and work

K. Eric Drexler was strongly influenced by ideas on

limits to growth ''The Limits to Growth'' (''LTG'') is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simula ...

in the early 1970s. During his first year at

, he sought out someone who was working on extraterrestrial resources. He found

Gerard K. O'Neill Gerard Kitchen O'Neill (February 6, 1927 – April 27, 1992) was an American physicist and space activist. As a faculty member of Princeton University, he invented a device called the particle storage ring for high-energy physics experiments. L ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, a physicist famous for his work on

storage ring A storage ring is a type of circular particle accelerator in which a continuous or pulsed particle beam may be kept circulating typically for many hours. Storage of a particular particle depends upon the mass, momentum and usually the charge of th ...

s for

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

s and his landmark work on the concepts of

space colonization Space colonization (also called space settlement or extraterrestrial colonization) is the use of outer space or celestial bodies other than Earth for permanent habitation or as extraterrestrial territory. The inhabitation and territori ...

. Drexler participated in NASA summer studies on space colonies in 1975 and 1976. He fabricated metal

films A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

a few tens of nanometers thick on a wax support to demonstrate the potentials of high-performance

solar sails Solar sails (also known as light sails and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large mirrors. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigation have been p ...

. He was active in space politics, helping the

L5 Society The L5 Society was founded in 1975 by Carolyn Meinel and Keith Henson to promote the space colony ideas of Gerard K. O'Neill. In 1987, the L5 Society merged with the National Space Institute to form the National Space Society. Name The name c ...

defeat the Moon Treaty in 1980. Besides working summers for O'Neill, building

mass driver A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to Acceleration, accelerate and catapult Payload (air and space craft), payloads up to high speeds. Existing and contemplated ...

prototypes, Drexler delivered papers at the first three

Space Manufacturing Space manufacturing is the production of tangible goods beyond Earth. Since most production capabilities are limited to low Earth orbit, the term in-orbit manufacturing is also frequently used. There are several rationales supporting in-space ...

conferences at Princeton. The 1977 and 1979 papers were co-authored with

Keith Henson Howard Keith Henson (born 1942) is an American electrical engineer and writer. Henson writes on subjects including space engineering, space law ( Moon treaty), memetics, cryonics, evolutionary psychology, and the physical limitations of Transh ...

, and patents were issued on both subjects, vapor phase fabrication and space radiators. During the late 1970s, Drexler began to develop ideas about

(MNT). In 1979, he encountered

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of the superflu ...

's provocative 1959 talk "

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics" was a lecture given by physicist Richard Feynman at the annual American Physical Society meeting at Caltech on December 29, 1959. Feynman considered the possibi ...

". In 1981, Drexler wrote a seminal research article, published by

PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of Scien ...

, "Molecular engineering: An approach to the development of general capabilities for molecular manipulation". This article has continued to be cited, more than 620 times, during the following 35 years. The term "

nano-technology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal of ...

" had been coined by the

Tokyo University of Science , formerly "Science University of Tokyo" or TUS, informally or simply is a private research university located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. History Tokyo University of Science was founded in 1881 as The Tokyo Academy of Physics by 21 graduates ...

professor

Norio Taniguchi was a professor of Tokyo University of Science. He coined the term '' nano-technology'' in 1974 N. Taniguchi, "On the Basic Concept of 'Nano-Technology'," Proc. Intl. Conf. Prod. Eng. Tokyo, Part II, Japan Society of Precision Engineering, 1974. ...

in 1974 to describe the precision manufacture of materials with nanometer tolerances, and Drexler unknowingly used a related term in his 1986 book '' Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology'' to describe what later became known as

(MNT). In that book, he proposed the idea of a nanoscale "assembler" which would be able to build a copy of itself and of other items of arbitrary complexity. He also first published the term "

grey goo Gray goo (also spelled as grey goo) is a hypothetical global catastrophic scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating machines consume all biomass on Earth while building many more of themselves, a sce ...

" to describe what might happen if a hypothetical self-replicating molecular assembler went out of control. He has subsequently tried to clarify his concerns about out-of-control self-replicators, and make the case that molecular manufacturing does not require such devices.

Education

Drexler holds three degrees from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

. He received his

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Interdisciplinary Sciences in 1977 and his

M.S. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

in 1979 in Astro/Aerospace Engineering with a master's thesis titled "Design of a High Performance Solar Sail System". In 1991, he earned a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

through the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

(formally, the Media Arts and Sciences Section, School of Architecture and Planning) after the department of

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

refused to approve Drexler's plan of study. His Ph.D. work was the first doctoral degree on the topic of molecular nanotechnology and his thesis, "Molecular Machinery and Manufacturing with Applications to Computation", was published (with minor editing) as ''Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation'' (1992), which received the Association of American Publishers award for Best Computer Science Book of 1992.

Personal life

Drexler was married to Christine Peterson for 21 years. The marriage ended in 2002. In 2006, Drexler married Rosa Wang, a former investment banker who works with Ashoka: Innovators for the Public on improving the social capital markets. Drexler has arranged to be cryonically preserved in the event of

legal death Legal death is the recognition under the law of a particular jurisdiction that a person is no longer alive. In most cases, a doctor's declaration of death (variously called) or the identification of a corpse is a legal requirement for such recognit ...

Reception

Drexler's work on nanotechnology was criticized as naive by

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner

Richard Smalley Richard Errett Smalley (June 6, 1943 – October 28, 2005) was an American chemist who was the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry, Physics, and Astronomy at Rice University. In 1996, along with Robert Curl, also a professor of ch ...

in a 2001 ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

'' article. Smalley first argued that "fat fingers" made MNT impossible. He later argued that nanomachines would have to resemble chemical

enzymes Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecule ...

more than Drexler's assemblers and could only work in water. Drexler maintained that both were

straw man A straw man (sometimes written as strawman) is a form of argument and an informal fallacy of having the impression of refuting an argument, whereas the real subject of the argument was not addressed or refuted, but instead replaced with a false ...

arguments, and in the case of enzymes, wrote that "Prof. Klibanov wrote in 1994, ' ... using an enzyme in organic

solvents A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for p ...

eliminates several obstacles ... '" Drexler had difficulty in getting Smalley to respond, but in December 2003, Chemical and Engineering news carried a four-part debate.

Ray Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, inventor, and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and e ...

disputes Smalley's arguments. The

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...

, in its 2006 review of the

National Nanotechnology Initiative The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a research and development initiative which provides a framework to coordinate nanoscale research and resources among United States federal government agencies and departments. History Mihail C ...

, argues that it is difficult to predict the future capabilities of nanotechnology:

In science fiction

Drexler is mentioned in

Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work exp ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel ''

The Diamond Age ''The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, set in a future world in ...

'' as one of the heroes of a future world where nanotechnology is ubiquitous. In the science fiction novel '' Newton's Wake'' by

Ken MacLeod Kenneth Macrae MacLeod (born 2 August 1954) is a Scottish science fiction writer. His novels ''The Sky Road'' and ''The Night Sessions'' won the BSFA Award. MacLeod's novels have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, an ...

, a 'drexler' is a nanotech assembler of pretty much anything that can fit in the volume of the particular machine—from socks to starships. Drexler is also mentioned in the science fiction book ''

Decipher DECIPHER is a web-based resource and database of genomic variation data from analysis of patient DNA. It documents submicroscopic Chromosome abnormality, chromosome abnormalities (Deletion (genetics), microdeletions and Gene duplication, duplic ...

'' by

Stel Pavlou Stelios Grant Pavlou (born 22 November 1970) is a British screenwriter and speculative fiction novelist. He is known for writing the novel ''Decipher'' and the screenplay for the film ''The 51st State''. Personal life Pavlou was born in Kent, En ...

; his book is mentioned as one of the starting points of nanomachine construction, as well as giving a better understanding of the way carbon 60 was to be applied.

James Rollins James Paul Czajkowski (born August 20, 1961), better known by his pen name of James Rollins, is an American veterinarian and writer of action-adventure/ thriller, mystery, and techno-thriller novels who gave up his veterinary practice in Sacramen ...

references Drexler's ''Engines of Creation'' in his novel ''Excavation'', using his theory of a molecular machine in two sections as a possible explanation for the mysterious "Substance Z" in the story. Drexler gets a mention in

Timothy Leary Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...

's '' Design for Dying'' in the "Mutation" section, briefly detailing the

8-circuit model of consciousness The eight-circuit model of consciousness is a holistic model originally described by Timothy Leary, later expanded on by Robert Anton Wilson and Antero Alli, that suggests "eight periods ircuitsand twenty-four stages of neurological evolution". ...

(pg. 91). Drexler is mentioned in

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

' ''

Doom Patrol Doom Patrol is a superhero team from DC Comics. The original Doom Patrol first appeared in ''My Greatest Adventure'' #80 (June 1963), and was created by writers Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, along with artist Bruno Premiani. Doom Patrol has appe ...

'' vol. 2, #57 (published July 1992). Drexler is mentioned in Michael Crichton's 2002 novel ''

Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

'' in the introduction (pg xii). The Drexler Facility (''ドレクサー機関'') of molecular nanotechnology research in the Japanese

eroge An ''eroge'' ( or , ''erogē''; ; a portmanteau of ''erotic game'' , ''erochikku gēmu'') is a Japanese genre of erotic video game. In 1982, Japan's Koei, founded by husband-and-wife team Yoichi and Keiko Erikawa (and later known for strategy ...

visual novels A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

Baldr Sky is a duology of Japanese adult visual novels with 2D action elements developed by Giga. The series characterizes itself as a cyberpunk action adventure game. The first game, named ''Baldr Sky Dive1 "Lost Memory”'' was released in Japan on Marc ...

'' is named after him. The "Assemblers" are its key invention.

Works

* ''

Engines of Creation ''Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology'' is a 1986 molecular nanotechnology book written by K. Eric Drexler with a foreword by Marvin Minsky. An updated version was released in 2007. The book has been translated into Japanese, F ...

'' (1986) ** Availabl
online at e-drexler.com
dead link ** Available online in Chinese a

** Available online in Italian a
MOTORI DI CREAZIONE: L’era prossima della nanotecnologia
* The Canvas of the Night (1990), (ar) Project Solar Sail, ed. Arthur C. Clarke, NAL/Roc () Science Fiction. * ''Unbounding the Future'' (1991; with

Christine Peterson Christine Peterson is an American forecaster, and the co-founder of Foresight Institute. She is credited with suggesting the term "open source" when used in connection with software. Peterson holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from MIT.

and Gayle Pergamit) () ** Available online with free download a
Unbounding the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution

(1992) ** Sample chapters and a table of contents are availabl

** Drexler's doctoral thesis, ''Molecular Machinery and Manufacturing with Applications to Computation'', an earlier version of the text that became ''Nanosystems'', is availabl
online
* ''Engines of Creation 2.0: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology - Updated and Expanded'', K. Eric Drexler, 647 pages, (February 2007) * ''Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization'', May 7, 2013, * ''Reframing Superintelligence: Comprehensive AI Services as General Intelligence'', K. Eric Drexler, Technical Report #2019-1, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford, 210 pages (2019

References

External links

*
Who's Who in the Nanospace
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drexler, K. Eric 1955 births Living people 21st-century American engineers American nanotechnologists American non-fiction environmental writers American transhumanists Cryonicists MIT School of Engineering alumni MIT School of Architecture and Planning alumni