[ExI] not yet nanobots, but micro-bots

[John Clark]

On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 11:22 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:



> *> **Regarding nanobotty, the very critical distinction is in how they
> are made.  Drexler’s vision on nanobots changed the way I see everything.
> I came upon his Engines of Creation in the 1980s on the shelf in a
> bookstore (back when those still existed.)  I thought it was misplaced and
> started carrying it back to where I thought it belonged, reading it along
> the way.  I stopped walking, continued reading, realized it was in the
> right place, turned around while continuing to read but veered off pi/2
> toward the cash register, bought the book,*
>

*That's amazing because almost exactly the same thing happened to me in
1986! I too first saw the book in the science section of a independent
bookstore, I had never heard of Drexler before and from reading the title
for some reason I thought "Engines Of Creation" must mean it was a book
about how stars create the heavy elements, but it only took about five
seconds for me to realize it wasn't about that at all. I then figured it
must be a crackpot book, but after another 90 seconds I realized it wasn't
a crackpot book either. So I bought it.  *


> *> took it home, changed my life.*
>

*Same with me. I don't think any book has influenced me more. The only
other books I would put in the same category as it are Gödel Escher Bach,
The Selfish Gene, and Arthur C Clarke's Profiles Of The Future which I read
when I was 12.*

* John K Clark *
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