Nano-manufacturing bottlenecks

[Glenn Martin]

Given the time restrictions to building something atom by atom, a logical
strategy would be to use as little material as possible. This would result
in a lot of common goods being transparent or having a painting stage at the
end of their manufacture. I would expect to see most things come with a
fill cap for water to prevent them blowing away with the slightest breeze.

Glenn Martin

[Fred Chen]

Interesting. It makes sense that if my device contains fewer and fewer
atoms, it would be more easily damaged or displaced.

It seems that any realistic nano-product must contain a reasonable
quantity of material (at least enough for the user to feel or see), but
with the material packaged into smaller pieces (like nanotubes). Rather
than each piece being critical, the whole 'goo' (possibly terrible
choice of words) would be the key functioning element.