No need to worry about nanobots running wild and reducing the world to a pile of gray goo, says the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology.
Well, that’s a relief.
But when they say molecular manufacturing systems will be no more autonomous than inkjets, and “No one worries about an inkjet printer crawling off the desk and stealing ink cartridges,” I say, speak for yourself!
Personally, I wouldn’t trust my inkjet printer as far as I could throw it. Slippery devil, squirting ink around with abandon. And laser printers are even worse–why, they’re armed! With lasers!
Dot-matrix printers are completely untrustworthy. As the “matrix” in their name warns us, if we have the wits to listen, they’re tools of the alien overlords that have duped us into living in a vast virtual reality while our bodies are really being used as living energy cells…or something like that.
No, the only computer printer I’ve ever found trustworthy was my old Commodore daisy-wheel. How can you not trust something with “daisy” in its name? And “wheel” sounds equally harmless and helpful.
So your analogy doesn’t work on me, Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. I keep my extra ink cartridges safely locked up precisely because of my well-founded fear of marauding rogue inkjet printers. Comparing molecular manufacturers to those sneaky pigment-slinging mechanical monsters is a really bad way to build confidence in a new technology.
And if anyone out there is trying to print this–don’t, I beg of you.
The printer will know. And it will come after you…
And after you, me.
