Eric Drexler is a researcher, author, and policy advocate focused on emerging technologies and their consequences for the future. Noting that technological advances have caused some of the deepest transformations in human history, he studies emerging technologies with the power to cause future global transformations. Rather than concentrating solely on the immediate laboratory aspects of emerging technologies, where many scientists work in an array of narrow fields, Eric Drexler has chosen to focus on longer-term developments and their potential economic and social consequences, a broad area often neglected or overshadowed in the study of technological change. An advocate of long-term perspectives in policymaking, Eric writes and lectures widely on the implications of emerging technologies for our future. He is presently Chief Technical Advisor of Nanorex, a company developing software for the design and simulation of molecular machine systems.

In 1981, exploring a vision articulated by Richard Feynman, Drexler described the physical principles of molecular manufacturing systems (using nanomachines to make products with atomic precision) in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He has since published three books on the topic, including Engines of Creation, in which he outlined the prospects for advanced molecular manufacturing technology—its capabilities, their medical, environmental, and economic implications, dangers and security risks, and potential policy responses. Engines introduced the term “nanotechnology” to describe the Feynman vision and the technologies it will enable.

He also authored Nanosystems, an advanced technical text on molecular manufacturing which details the design of nanomechanical components, devices, and systems. Nanosystems draws from chemistry, physics, computation, and systems engineering to describe the fundamentals of molecular manufacturing and how to achieve it. His publications in the area of molecular manufacturing are cited as foundational in protein engineering, nanomachinery, and mechanosynthesis. In addition to his work on molecular manufacturing, Dr. Drexler has published widely on the topics of space resources, solar sails, and the use of computer media to improve the evolution of knowledge. He holds three patents for space systems and co-authored a series of articles on market-based open systems in The Ecology of Computation.

Eric Drexler was born in Alameda, CA in 1955. He obtained an SB and SM from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and was awarded a PhD from MIT in Molecular Nanotechnology (the first degree of its kind), supervised by Marvin Minsky. His book Nanosystems received the AAP award for Most Outstanding Computer Science Book of 1992. He resides in Los Altos CA with his wife, Rosa Wang.

His web site, E-Drexler.com, provides information and updates on progress toward advanced nanotechnologies.

Links:

http://www.e-drexler.com/

See essays by this author:

An Open Letter to Richard Smalley

Dialogue between Ray Kurzweil, Eric Drexler, and Robert Bradbury

Drexler Counters

Nanotechnology: Six Lessons from Sept. 11

The Future of Nanotechnology: Molecular Manufacturing

Toward closure: Open letter to Prof. Smalley

See selected books by this author:

ENGINES of CREATION 2.0 | Advice to Aspiring Nanotechnologists

ENGINES of CREATION 2.0 | Letter from the Author

ENGINES of CREATION 2.0 | Molecular Engineering: An Approach to the Development of General Capabilities for Molecular Manipulation

ENGINES of CREATION | Acknowledgements

ENGINES of CREATION | Afterword

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 10: The Limits to Growth

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 11: The Engines of Destruction

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 12: Strategies and Survival

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 13: Finding the Facts

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 14: The Network of Knowledge

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 15: Worlds Enough, and Time

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 1: Engines of Construction

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 2: The Principles of Change

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 3: Predicting and Projecting

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 4: Engines of Abundance

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 5: Thinking Machines

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 6: The World Beyond Earth

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 7: Engines of Healing

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 8: Long Life In An Open World

ENGINES of CREATION | Chapter 9: A Door To The Future

ENGINES of CREATION | Glossary

ENGINES of CREATION | Introduction to the Web Version

ENGINES of CREATION | Notes and References

Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation

Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

Updated and Expanded | Engines of Creation 2.0 -- The Coming Era of Nanotechnology