Everything seems most difficult when you cant see the practical way forward.
Moores law is consistently seen as coming to an end, but always comes up for another gasp.
How do you create strained nano-structures? I dont know, but someone will discover a way. Etc.
You talk of impediment. How is creating a vision - a goal - an impediment?
Smalley and many others entered the field inspired by Drexler!
At a practical level, the assembler researchers get no direct funding from NNI.
Furthermore, Drexler himself is the first to say applaud the experimentalists.
Foresight hands out a theoretical and experimemtal prize every year.
You make comments about scaling, vacuum, and thermal limits, as if they havent been thought through.
Have you read Drexlers book Nanosystems ? (1992, basically his PhD thesis).
He begins with a chapter on scaling of numerous physical parameter leading to highly
conservative design assumption thereafter.
He defines of the required hardness of the vacuum required.
He works though assumptions relating to thermal activity.
He describes expected stress and strain on structures. Etc.
Everything is conservatively pinned down.
I challenge you and other experimentalists to find holes in his published technical arguments.
Actually, Atkinson has backed down from his hard-line assmblers-are-impossible position. He was challenged to a debate with Chris Phoenix of CRN.org, where he was challenged on numerous factual errors, and eventually softened his position and entered into a useful dialog. See http://nanotech-now.com/Atkinson-Phoenix-Nanotech- Debate.htm.
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You talk of impediment. How is creating a vision - a goal - an impediment? Smalley and many others entered the field inspired by Drexler! At a practical level, the assembler researchers get no direct funding from NNI. Furthermore, Drexler himself is the first to say applaud the experimentalists. Foresight hands out a theoretical and experimemtal prize every year.
You make comments about scaling, vacuum, and thermal limits, as if they havent been thought through. Have you read Drexlers book Nanosystems ? (1992, basically his PhD thesis). He begins with a chapter on scaling of numerous physical parameter leading to highly conservative design assumption thereafter. He defines of the required hardness of the vacuum required. He works though assumptions relating to thermal activity. He describes expected stress and strain on structures. Etc. Everything is conservatively pinned down.
I challenge you and other experimentalists to find holes in his published technical arguments.
Actually, Atkinson has backed down from his hard-line assmblers-are-impossible position. He was challenged to a debate with Chris Phoenix of CRN.org, where he was challenged on numerous factual errors, and eventually softened his position and entered into a useful dialog. See http://nanotech-now.com/Atkinson-Phoenix-Nanotech- Debate.htm.