[extropy-chat] Smalley, Drexler and the monster in Lake Michigan

[Hal Finney]

Hal Finney wrote:

: It's disappointing that the recent nanotech bill
: has explicitly removed funding for Drexlerian nanotech.

Robert Bradbury replied:

> But it didn't Hal!  The study people are all talking about
> in the oringally proposed Senate bill was explitly for
> "self-assembly"  (I checked that section of the 4 bills
> in the congressional records yesterday).

I am going by
http://nanobot.blogspot.com/2003_11_23_nanobot_archive.html#106969756709919883,
which indicates that the original House version of the bill funded
research to study "molecular manufacturing", while that phrase got
changed in the Senate to "molecular self-assembly", and that's what's
in the final bill.  The former term would cover Drexler-style nanotech,
while the latter apparently does not.  And according to the article this
was an explicit and politically motivated decision to remove funding
from the field.

Hal