Talk:Survey of Nanotechnology Issues
From Wise Nano
security tradeoffs in the scale of nanofactory deployments. by Nato 19:22, 13 Jun 2005 (CDT)
The section on "mega-stores" is very insightful. The popular vision of a desktop nanofactory is focusing a lot of attention. On the other hand, desktop units for the home would also require a lot of care to keep safe (see Nanofactory Security Design).
This made me realize something about the trends I'm seeing in the inteelectual space. First, we had the grey goo scare. We solve the problem of invisible reproducing machines by confining them to the macroscale - so now we have desktop reproducing machines. But toa certain extent, we still have a security problem. "We", as a species, are rightfully concerned about the security of "independently reproducing" things. But designing them to be dependent on people, while a good start, isn't enough. the fact is, we still have an equally dangerous situation (perhaps moreso, considering the relative feasibility of desktop nanofactories relative to self-reproducing nanobots), since we can be just as concerned with the dangers of other humans as we can be about the dangers of non-human nanobots.
The solution to grey goo - desktop nanofactories - is valid, but it still leaves us with considerable danger, even with "trusted manufacturing" restriction measures. And that danger is, in essence, the *same kind* as grey goo. increasing the scale - socio-politically, if not physically - of the factory seems to help the situation even further, as the mega-store model seems to indicate.
While I have to admit that the idea of the power of nanofabrication being reserved to the WalMarts of the world really distaasteful, It does have its advantages:
Since most consumer material commerce takes place in public, there's very little chance to achieve the privacy circumventions would require. Modern production factories aren't necessarily ublic, but their centralized nature makes it easy for government to inspect and regulate the safety of their products. While decentralizing production decreases the cost of distribution, it actually increases the cost of regulation, making it difficult to track down and examine products for public safety. There would be a civic benefit to keeping production facilities somewhat centralized.
Instead of a desktop nanofactory in every home, think of a public store that serves as a public produciton facility. If everyone who makes use of a nanofactory must do it in public, he must do so under public scrutiny, keeping him accountable for that which he produces. This would eliminate the privacy a tinkerer would probably need to perform a circumvention, as well. Perhaps orders would be filled by certified "fab operators", who must test, record, and certify everything they produce for people.
Unfortunately, centralizing the technology, whether in civic or corporate institutions, makes it vulnerable to abuse by the powerful. Each person must strike a careful balance between their mistrust of authority and their mistrust of less-capable peers, whether they're criminal or just simply rebellious.
--Nato
