at the present it means a number of different things. the concept when i introduced it 1986 focused on small machines. able to do manufacturing operations starting with the moeblg/building blocks, with larger pieces and precise products on the term. manufacturing. and if you introduce this term. 19 will 86 why you are just writing about it in 2013? again? a lot happened in the last book that i wrote. based on the dissertation. and this book will be much more accessible. a lot has happened. and since the launch. and research programs around world. and up brel of nanotechnology. and idea and popular culture has gone off in peculiar directions.

and the rise of technology base that has much further than people think. i think that lead to surprising progress when people put the pieces together to focus on precise manufacturing of technology on the path of the cape little bit. >> what do you mean by progress? >> that will mean moving through the succession of generations of tools. and if you look at computers we have had more law progress generation and generation off of systems. in this case, the prospect. different technologies initially that lay the groundwork for the later stages. today people were able to make small molecules with smaller precision that was done for a hundred years, that scaled up over the decades from making a dozen adams in the precise arrangement. and making millions.

building on that, we see the ability to make the devices and the machines. the systems and the tools. think of the manufacturing for the day. will you find a lot of machines. where do they come from? >> built by other machines. where did they come from? if you trace back and back, looking at the branchs and the leaves of the tree of technology. and if you go back through the branches you will find that the core of the machines that make machines machines. precision machines and trace it back into the generations will you find a black smith and hammering away making tools that are better, and passing them onto his son. the same path of using tools and better tools is emerging in the nanoworld and it can go compareably far but parallels the industrial revolution to make manufacturing systems that work surprisingly so much

like those we are familiar with and a smaller scale. some ways parallel to the digital logic. contrast. a couple of decades will you fine telephones where the signals were set by and television and radio and a place else that you would have movie cameras and dark rooms and all sorts of devices. today, we have digital logic system. and things that you find into the computer. hand will bits and bites precision. arranging patterns that are then brought out into patterns and picks els on the screchbltz machines and so on and the amazing power of the technology is that it is the ability to work with the smallest bits of information. at enormous speeds. to make the complex patterns that is something that did not exist before computers

that have components down to the nanoscale and and the prospect is of a similar transform age based on nanoscale devices. you gift potentially practical potential of a car manufacturer. build ago factory the size of the garage. how did that happen? is that our? after a series of developments. one should not confuse a clear site with short distance. we have the clear sight at present. but the processs looks like again useful in the modern

automobile fact tree. you see the autimated processs to make up a full-scale automobile. and take the comment. and the engine perhaps. and if you trace back further will you see the part were put together from smaller parts and finally you will get to a small unit made by assembly. in a precise manufacturing process will you find a similar process of parts to be similar. and will you be able to trace it and at a smaller scale will you have microscopic parts that are put together to make parts. and down to the molecular building blocks. those processs could be familiar with machines and putting parts together conventional like attack tree floor and conveyer belt

and swinging parts almost absurdly familiar. and come henceible. very easy to understand once one gets it into focus. so that is one surprise and the other surprise is the process could be fast. and efficient and very productive. where is the 3-d fiting into your progress recession scale? >> 3 d print something the best analogy in the sense for the technology. if you look at the prospect to be able to have a desk top printer. and smaller to make a household goods or such. 3-d printer left side take information and put down bits and the home bits of plastic and build up the layer by 3 dimensional

objects that are useful and functional. the prospect here is digital information putting together small parts to make 3 dimensional object in the box that is not enormously larger than the product itself. so that is very parallel. the nature of the products on the other hand could be very different. i named the book radical abundance it is useful to think of radical in two terms. in two senses. one is a radical expansion of the range of the products that could be made in terms of performance and efficency and applications and the other is a radical reduck in the cost. by cost i mean that in every sense of word. labor costs and materials. and energy. also the cost associate with the the environmental impact. this is the technology that lends itself to production.

with a zero carbon footprint. and production of vehicles and other that themselves have a zero carbon footprint. and ep the economics of the energy and required devices to open up the prospect to be able to do they think there is no other prospect of accomplishing. that is actually reversing the other accumulation of green house gases in the atmosphere. and going back to the causes of global warm. >> what is the nni? the nanotechnology initiative. that coordinates the funding here across the u.s. government. there are parallel organizations in other countries. launched in the year. 2000. that was when congress voted. and scaled up to about a billion dollars per year of government fund that can is matched by the comparable or

larger amounts of corporate funding however that which drove the excitement and drove to congress funding this program of the vision of precise manufacturing. if you go to the web site. most of the research is centered on what broadly speak something very diverse, and many areas and applications. but it centers on the nanomaterials. so when the idea of the atomicly precise manufacturing will capture the public scientific imagination it was a building from the bottom up. tools building tools. many scientists said. oh we are working with adams at omsk and molecules which have done for a century or more, and building nanoscale structures that says this is nanotechnology. that would be use of the term.

many are doing, this and we saw the word nanotechnology going into two different direction. and one of the a popular fantasy that grew out of ideas that were in the first book that went into the strange direction. the other was in relatively mundane. and and the third direction. not under that name advances into the precise fabrication coming out of the molecular sciences and have you that was very relevant. not believe to be nanotechnology and the fantasy pulling into one direction and mundane pull into another. the concept was very confused and i felt that it was necessary write the radical abundance. they are prospects that changed really the material found ages of civilization. in terms of global economic

develop meant. resource limitations and energy supplies global warming. this prospect raises questions. questions of hey is this real? what is the timeline. lines of progress. questions of impact. and the new problem that's are raised by the transforming change and the potential change in the global agenda with respect to the range of the global problems. the book end with the request for readeres to keep the discussion on track. and not into fantasy. mundane science but prospect discussed. the manufacturing. productive. and raising certain questions and based on that, to begin a conversation that asks those questions. and to give them careful consideration.

then moves on forward to grapple with the prospect of the different and unexpected future. >> dr. drexler. for the listenerss what you are doing in england? >> i came to oxford a year and a half ago to complete the work on the book. and there is alonger tradition than any other american university and i found myself on sharing space of the program on the impact of the future technology. and center of practical ethics and the section of floor there. it is on history of art. so there are interesting with practical ethics.

you are teaching here? >> i am not teaching. i have given talks but it has been focus odd the book. >> i was born in california and raised in a number of the states and within to school m.i.t.. a masters and. from there. they were a disciplinary science. the third of the program. then went to california and finally here. are there companies another are part of the future. >> this is part of the difficulty to arise in this type of technology. and that it is in science and not about major

discoveries and the breakthroughs and taking the knowledge that exists. putting the pieces together. working out problems. and moving forward. the technology. who move the technologies forward? >> people working as engineers. >> what do they talk about? >> what could be built next year or in aerospace engineering the next decade the culture that i came from. so if something is being discuss there had is an assumption that it is around the corner. why else would anybody else be considering it? >> if you apply the nonscience and physical law it is understandable for potential future technologies. and it is in a sense inherpt the line of what can and cannot be done. inherent in the structure of physical law at present that is very well understood and established so what i have done. methodology that i discussed engineer something to take present scientific knowledge and put that together with

known patterns of own begineering practice. and to understand that technology. that is precisely a chain of developments so if you ask where is it today it is like saying 1962 where there was a space program and where there are moon rocks you get that when you bull the succession of the vehicles and go to the moon and back. if you ask we want this to be a small moon rock today that is correct is the wrong question. dr. drexler. is there a european or a british silicon valley? >> there is extensive research in cutting-edge fields all over the world. in europe and britain. i am not sufficiently familiar with what would or would not core respond with silicon valley and i do know that i very much enjoy being

in britain. both because it is an advanced technology country with along vision and also because it will be part of the eu another powerhouse. and sometimes it is possible in the united states to get a little bit independence/and to think that this is a very good place to stand in looking forward toward what is clearly a global technology. you know. the industrial revolution was of course led by britain. a number were led by the united states. and as many observed the molecular technologies and the areas that are under the umbrella of relevance are merging globally and you can see the level of research in the united states and research. china. and japan. and the prospect is i hope that for a continuation of the kind of scientific collaboration that one finals in the fields.

that they have the capability. to enable us to be of an increasing concern of the day. what is importance in nanotechnology progress? contributing areas of research are funded by the federal government and the found ages or working on molecular structure and implementation. so the role scientific funding. the time for the really strong applications. so ibm has been spojsible for a number of key advances

and also from the path from here to there. tools and the generations of technology. we are seeing applications and molecular technology force the day. that is why they are advancing for a century. they will continue and they will become a productive direct. to the extent that one would focus on the transformtive considerations and the ones that it is important to understand well in advance those are beyond the business time horizon. i can see the business as it is right now. investing in pieces rolling forward. a vision of the transforming goal is a little bit beyond that horizon for the day. is there a bell lab. that you talk about business investment. periods. is there a bell labs out there today? well it has been observed in the united states really doesn't have a bell labs anymore. i this i that some of the ibm research facilities come close. some of the work. i mentioned a precise

fabrication and particularly. work at harvard and elsewhere the particular breakthrough was caltech. working. and structures are growing. and now larger. if they take them to the structures and the circuit board. >> dr. drexler, you cite two influences. two books limits of growth and silence yes.

why would the author of the book become interested in the long-term technologies and decades ahead. my life. when the environmental movement of rising and shared concerns with the time that have turned out to be entirely too real with the ecological activities. and limitations. and and the by products of industry. co 2. and i began to ask is there away out of the box? is there a transformation of the human relationship to the world that is mediated by technology? >> is the way of changing the way obtaining resources

and making things and living that would with the limits of the earth. that is what set me on this path. into future technologies and scientific and technological community and same you will containously to abroader audience. they are about fundamental human concerns. >> there is something that i feel is the fate of readers you write. i hope that they will understand the counter infutureive message and take it to heart. and if you find ideas of the perspective compelling and convincing exciting if you imagine the vistas far beyond any out lined or

problems and feel the urge for excite meant. lie down until the urge passes. and enthusiastic. 25 years ago and are still enthusiastic and had a negative affect. when people hear too much excitement come from a minority. it is a crazy idea. there are ideas reviewed by the national acadamy of sciences and research program to have a book out of the m.i.t. dissertation. what i want to see is a for the concepts to be kept in focus. and to introduce into discussion. science. technology. and forward looking areas of public policy. and the general discussion among those intelligent people that read books. we can move the conversation forward. and on a exam initialed question.

with care. and on a sound basis. so there is some people that will sort of keep it quiet for a little bit. a major part of what the book us discusses is the potential for technology. and to apply breaks. and many reasons for moving forward. nations, cultures and mcal systems. problems that look forward to the joint solution. that decreases some of the causes for international conflict. and coming out of that perhaps a cooprative development program to avoid pitfalls and to achieve the great potential of the new technologies.

radical abundance revolution of nanotechnology will change civilization. and dr. eric drexler. you're watching span 2.

i go back and forth to different ones. 1861 about the year of the civil war. and over 1863 now. what is happening in gettysburg. commemorating the battle there. getting the sense of what is happening 18 of 1. and all of the scenes going on. there at the time. and it was happening around the country. as it pertain today the slavery and other issues obviously during that time as well. fast forwarding about a hundred years. firing rain. a great book about the break up of the beatles and about

the emergence of james taylor. and musical standpoint. what is happening politically at the time. we had woodstock 69. and political unrest. penn state and was what was happening there at the time. remarkable book. read ago book as well. the executioner. it is a book about the diary of an executioner from the 16th century. and earlier part of the 17th century. a little bit gory but interesting all the same. and executioner diary in germany. nuremberg.

during that time. and the book i a am almost done deal with the devil a murder trial that took place. just as our country was at the starting and it was the trial of someone by the name of levi weeks from manhattan and he was on trial for the murder of a woman elma sands. his defense attorneys were both aaron burr. and the dual with the devil. as the country had the two rivals as a defense attorney. i will not give away the ending of the trial or the book itself. but this is remarkable the book as well. so, so far those are the bookdz that i presently have juggled around here and there. >> let us know what you are reading this summer.

tweet us. book tv. post it on our facebook page and send us an e-mail.

>> thank you very much good evening everyone. i send