PSYCHOKINESIS 101
the needs of the individuals, process the information, and then e-mail
it back to them. Then their personal fabricator would use its lasers and
miniature cutting tools to make the object they desire on a tabletop.
This all-purpose personal factory is just the first step. Eventually,
Gershenfeld wants to take his idea to the molecular level, so a person
might be able to literally fabricate any object that can be visualized by
the human mind. Progress in this direction, however, is slow because
of the difficulty in manipulating individual atoms.
One pioneer working in this direction is Aristides Requicha of the
University of Southern California. His specialty is "molecular robotics"
and his goal is nothing less than creating a fleet of nanorobots that can
manipulate atoms at will. He writes that there are two approaches. The
first is the "top-down" approach, in which engineers would use the
etching technology of the semiconductor industry to create tiny circuits that could serve as the brains of the nanorobots. With this technology, one could create tiny robots whose components would be 30
nm in size using "nanolithography," which is a fast-moving field.
But there is also the "bottom-up" approach, in which engineers
would try to create tiny robots one atom at a time. The main tool for
this would be the scanning probe microscope (SPM), which uses the
same technology as the scanning tunneling microscope, to identify and
move individual atoms around. For example, scientists have become
quite skilled at moving xenon atoms on platinum or nickel surfaces.
But, he admits, "it still takes the best groups in the world some 10
hours to assemble a structure with almost 50 atoms." Moving single
atoms around by hand is slow, tedious work. What is needed, he asserts, is a new type of machine that can perform higher-level functions,
one that can automatically move hundreds of atoms at a time in a desired fashion. Unfortunately, such a machine does not yet exist. Not
surprisingly, the bottom-up approach is still in its infancy.
So psychokinesis, although impossible by today's standards, may become possible in the future as we come to understand more about accessing the thoughts of our brain via EEG, MRI, and other methods.
the needs of the individuals, process the information, and then e-mail
it back to them. Then their personal fabricator would use its lasers and
miniature cutting tools to make the object they desire on a tabletop.
This all-purpose personal factory is just the first step. Eventually,
Gershenfeld wants to take his idea to the molecular level, so a person
might be able to literally fabricate any object that can be visualized by
the human mind. Progress in this direction, however, is slow because
of the difficulty in manipulating individual atoms.
One pioneer working in this direction is Aristides Requicha of the
University of Southern California. His specialty is "molecular robotics"
and his goal is nothing less than creating a fleet of nanorobots that can
manipulate atoms at will. He writes that there are two approaches. The
first is the "top-down" approach, in which engineers would use the
etching technology of the semiconductor industry to create tiny circuits that could serve as the brains of the nanorobots. With this technology, one could create tiny robots whose components would be 30
nm in size using "nanolithography," which is a fast-moving field.
But there is also the "bottom-up" approach, in which engineers
would try to create tiny robots one atom at a time. The main tool for
this would be the scanning probe microscope (SPM), which uses the
same technology as the scanning tunneling microscope, to identify and
move individual atoms around. For example, scientists have become
quite skilled at moving xenon atoms on platinum or nickel surfaces.
But, he admits, "it still takes the best groups in the world some 10
hours to assemble a structure with almost 50 atoms." Moving single
atoms around by hand is slow, tedious work. What is needed, he asserts, is a new type of machine that can perform higher-level functions,
one that can automatically move hundreds of atoms at a time in a desired fashion. Unfortunately, such a machine does not yet exist. Not
surprisingly, the bottom-up approach is still in its infancy.
So psychokinesis, although impossible by today's standards, may become possible in the future as we come to understand more about accessing the thoughts of our brain via EEG, MRI, and other methods.