Society and Nanotechnology

Through information technology looking at the social changes in the world I still believe nanotechnology will change the medical and military fields affecting the world and everyone in it. Medical research in nanotechnology could lead to superior medical therapies that could produce cancer-targeting dendrites, or even nanodevices that could inhibit biological activity like the release of adrenaline. Nanotechnology will save lives in the medical field; there is no question or argument about that. These advances will have the ability to save lives but with its ability to prolong life using machined parts, blurring the line between humans and machines. Also this new technology would save scores of lives and eradicate many diseases.

The good thing about the military nanotechnology is that it is mainly for the defense which will save many lives. The defensive weapons would be able to store mass amounts of information in the form of terabytes and would be so stealth-like that they would be pushing the threshold of invisibility. The weapons of nanotechnology would include bombs that could find a single person that had been “painted” with nano particles. Nanotechnology would produce armor for soldiers that could adjust to the environment and that would be almost indestructible. Even more important, would be nanotechnology’s power to allow tiny cameras, the size of insects, to be developed, or tracking devices in the form of dust. Clearly, nanotechnology will rival and surpass the power of a nuclear weapon, and will save countless lives. With tiny cameras and small tracking devices countries could keep track of terrorist leaders without them ever knowing they were being watched. If the watched terrorist decided to make an attack, he could be captured or killed with a bomb designed specifically for him, eliminating the collateral damage. Imagine if nanotechnologies weapons had been used to track Osama Bin Laden’s plan to attack the World Trade Centers and he had been captured before September 11th, thousands of American and Iraqi lives would have been saved.

Kosal, Margaret. "Is Small Scary." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist. Oct 2004: 60.