Re: [ExI] not yet nanobots, but micro-bots

[Keith Henson]

Engines of Creation is certainly a landmark work. But I knew Eric to
have exceptional ideas from 1975 when we were both at the Space
Manufacturing Conference at Princeton. By the 1979 conference, when
he started talking about nanotechnology, we had written two papers
jointly, one on using vapor phase manufacturing to build large
structures in space, and another on dust-filled radiators to get rid
of waste heat in space. Both papers were mentioned favorably by the
conference organizers, and we filed for patents on them. Alas, the
patents have long expired, because we were way too far ahead of time.

I think Eric recommended _The Selfish Gene_ to me. It deeply
influenced my thinking and eventually led me into evolutionary
psychology. I wrote some of the earliest articles about memes and
gained a mention for coining "memeoids" in the second edition.

It has been an interesting life--so far.

Keith

Keith

On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 5:21 AM John Clark via extropy-chat
<extrop...@lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 11:22 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <extrop...@lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>
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>> > 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.
>
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>> > took it home, changed my life.
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>
> 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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