Gods of Small Things

Their policy push happened just as the larger public's perceptions about nanotechnology--was it Drexlerian nanobots or a more incremental blend of physics and chemistry?--were Smalley and some policymakers had fears that negative perceptions might impede their plans for a national research initiative. This concern was heightened when, in April 2000, Wired magazine published Bill Joy's article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us." Joy, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, warned about future technological dystopias. He singled out nanotechnology--especially the Drexlerian visions of autonomous and self-replicating nano-assemblers--as a potential threat to humanity. Two years later, novelist Michael Crichton published his best-selling techno-thriller Prey.