Molecular Nanotechnology Is Next Development

Sometime between the next ten to twenty years, the next and most significant wave of nanotechnolology development will be upon us. Known as the fourth wave, mmolecular nanotechnology (MNT) signals the expansion of concept encompassing the production functional mechanical systems, only at a molecular scale These machines will be built "atom by atom" and will remain at a molecular scale, an advance that will separate them from nanoscale models which will appear large in comparison.

When the godfather of Nanotechnology. Professor Richard Feynman spoke of his vision of minute factories that would use nanomachines to produce products that while miniscule would carry out the most complex of tasks. Even when he made his speech back in the late nineteen fifties, Feynman saw beyond the concepts of conventional nanotechnology. This was a form of molecular scale manufacturing that would utilize mechaonosynthesis and would be controlled and guided by machines at a molecular scale. He envisioned a combination of the physical principles demonstrated in chemistry, as well as other forms of nanotechnology as well as the systems engineering principles in action today in the most modern of macroscale factories. Although the theories of Professor Feynman were generally regarded as being feasible by the scientists and physicists who were present when they were first raised, it will be at least another 70 years before they will be in action in a physical form

It is widely expected that the next major industrial revolution will be signaled when molecular manufacturing becomes a reality. Researchers assuredly state that molecular nanotechnology will ostensibly, radically and rapidly transform the way we live our lives from the early 21st century. Countries and civilizations that have embraced and nurtured the technology will leap light years forward more or less overnight in the terms of world history. Countries that have been unwilling or unable to keep pace with molecular scale nanotechnology will pay the price. Industrialized nations of the western world will again step forward and claim their rightful place as leaders of world technology, rightly earned by their foresight.

The power earned by having molecular technology at their disposal, will require to be used wisely and prudently, as its effect will be so wide reaching as to directly affect every man, woman or child alive on the Earth, and it will spread like wildfire. The ability to produce at a previously unprecedented scale and in such a reduced bulk that global border will crumble in the wake of this breathtaking technology. Economies dependant on the utilization of cheap and plentiful labor will face new and unprecedented challenges. Problems that seem insurmountable today can and will be overcome through molecular nanotechnology. Famine, water shortages, disease and war can all be effectively stamped out by proper use of this technology. Wise nations and their leaders will have to take a firm hand on the control of molecular nanotechnology as incorrect use of its power could lead to calamitous results.

A fine balance will require to be employed so that economic chaos does not result from overexposure to the benefits of molecular nanotechnology too quickly. Many economic thinkers feel that the technology be introduced in stages, initially to curb global poverty and starvations and later as a commercial application where all countries who display an earnest desire to use the technology for the common good, be allowed an equal share of its seemingly unending commercial potential.