> This is an honest summary of Drexler’s Ph.D. thesis/book<p>It is not. I'm disappointed to see such lazy dishonest rhetoric on the front page of a site for the intellectually curious. The thesis in question: <a href="https://e-drexler.com/d/09/00/Drexler_MIT_dissertation.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://e-drexler.com/d/09/00/Drexler_MIT_dissertation.pdf</a><p>I think the bright spot in all this is that people learned from what happened to Drexler's program for responsibly developing advanced nanotech and so far have kept the AI safety program from the same fate. Drexler wrote a recent book on that subject, btw: <a href="https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/reframing/" rel="nofollow">https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/reframing/</a>
How can one stay on top of and get involved in the latest work in MEMS?
Can someone elaborate on the difference between licensed software for MEMS multiphysics simulation like Comsol vs open source software simulated collaboration?
Have open fab tool projects been helpful in creating equipment that could help amateurs do more scientific research at this scale?
How could one attempt to experimentally validate Drexler's latest proposed 3d printer design with x-y-z axis photosteppers? [1] (Slide 14)<p>Silicon atom mechanosynthesis experiments have succeeded, but it seems there is not enough funding for direct to DMS experiments with pico-stabilized tooltips. Would it not be a good use of a billion dollar fund to experimentally research the DFT-simulated diamondoid minimal tooltip set? [2]<p>---<p>[1] <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/06/f33/Keynote%20presentation%20-%20Drexler.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2016/06/f33/Keynote%...</a>
[2] <a href="http://www.molecularassembler.com/Papers/MinToolset.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.molecularassembler.com/Papers/MinToolset.pdf</a>
Discussed at the time: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1629525" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1629525</a>
Perhaps it was true when this was written, but it's certainly not true now that "mechanical objects on microscales do not exist". The whole field of MEMS is about them, which includes such prosaic things as smartphone gyros/accelerometers.