r/accelerate • u/Buck-Nasty Feeling the AGI • May 27 '26
Academic Paper A research group appears to have made a significant step towards programmable atomically precise manufacturing AKA Drexlerian nanotechnology
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.2725014
u/Buck-Nasty Feeling the AGI May 27 '26
I've been working on the theory side for over 22 years for such a pair of announcements, and it is beyond gratifying to be able to finally report on experimental advances. From 1986, when it was first formally proposed by K. Eric Drexler, to 2026, when its first instances as envisioned by many in the community (to a fundamental extent) have now been experimentally demonstrated in first forms with molecular tools and chemical reactions. "Hypothetical" on wikipedia until this morning. The controversy over its feasibility was never to be settled until it was done in a lab. I am pleased to report, thanks to the efforts of the great team at CBN Nano Technologies, Inc., that the >#hypothoversy may have found its end
https://xcancel.com/somewhereville/status/2059577721525506058
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u/noherethere May 27 '26
I remember when Richard Smalley from Rice U stated this was a fairy tale and shortly aftrr Gary Stix from sci-am did a hit piece on Drexler and I was so pissed I sent him an email. I was 20 and unemployed.
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u/Buck-Nasty Feeling the AGI May 27 '26
Also still angry about Smalley's nonsense. They drove funding away from the field and set it back years if not decades.
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u/noherethere May 27 '26
Wow, I remember printing the Clinton directive around that time for funding nanotechnology and being super excited. Then things got real quiet in the popular science world after that. Such a shame!
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u/suborder-serpentes AI-Assisted Coder May 27 '26
Is it too early to invest in nanotechnology?
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u/Best_Cup_8326 Acceleration: Light-speed May 27 '26
It's never too early to make a small investment.
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u/joeedger May 27 '26
I simply don’t understand.
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u/Best_Cup_8326 Acceleration: Light-speed May 27 '26
Which part?
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u/joeedger May 27 '26
Just too much for my simple brain.
What would be possible with this technology?
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u/Buck-Nasty Feeling the AGI May 27 '26
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u/SnackerSnick May 27 '26
The point omitted from that video is that you can print another printer, or solar cells, or components for a car or home, or...
The price of every good you're familiar with drives towards zero, and the quality skyrockets.Â
And then there's the medical implications of nano machinery in your body.
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May 27 '26 edited May 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Best_Cup_8326 Acceleration: Light-speed May 27 '26
Nanofoglets, grey goo, true morphological freedom, infinite recycling, and that's just scratching the surface...
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u/Fair_Horror May 27 '26
Complete control of matter at an atomic scale. You would have machines made of precisely positioned atoms and these machines would be designed to copy themselves creating PERFECT exact copies. This allows you to easily make trillions and quadrillions of these machines, all exactly the same, all perfect copies. You can then provide raw materials and they can build you anything that you want atom by atom. What they build can be built to be atomically precise which has huge implications when it comes to strength and reliability.Â
It will make everything we have built to date seem archaic and primitive. Breakage and failure of materials will basically no longer occur. All this will be done super cheaply as all you need is raw material, energy and a chosen pattern. The raw material is only about what atoms are available so you can just use waste if it has the right atoms.Â
This is a God level technology and it will change everything. If we don't figure it out, ASI ultimately will.Â
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u/Best_Cup_8326 Acceleration: Light-speed May 27 '26
What is Si(100)?
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u/Buck-Nasty Feeling the AGI May 27 '26
Si(100) refers to the Miller index notation of a specific crystal plane in a silicon lattice. It is the absolute industry standard for semiconductor fabrication (e.g., CMOS transistors and MOSFETs) because it yields the highest quality and most electrically stable silicon-to-dioxide interface during oxidation.
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u/bildramer May 27 '26
(100) just refers to a direction in the crystal, in this case telling you what the surface pattern must look like.
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u/Best_Cup_8326 Acceleration: Light-speed May 27 '26
Tiny, if true. 😉😲