Editing Molecular nanotechnology (section)

===Benefits===

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Nanotechnology (or molecular nanotechnology to refer more specifically to the goals discussed here) will let us continue the historical trends in manufacturing right up to the fundamental limits imposed by physical law. It will let us make remarkably powerful molecular computers. It will let us make materials over fifty times lighter than steel or aluminium alloy but with the same strength. We'll be able to make jets, rockets, cars or even chairs that, by today's standards, would be remarkably light, strong, and inexpensive. Molecular surgical tools, guided by molecular computers and injected into the blood stream could find and destroy cancer cells or invading bacteria, unclog arteries, or provide oxygen when the circulation is impaired.
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Nanotechnology will replace our entire manufacturing base with a new, radically more precise, radically less expensive, and radically more flexible way of making products. The aim is not simply to replace today's computer chip making plants, but also to replace the assembly lines for cars, televisions, telephones, books, surgical tools, missiles, bookcases, airplanes, tractors, and all the rest. The objective is a pervasive change in manufacturing, a change that will leave virtually no product untouched. Economic progress and military readiness in the 21st Century will depend fundamentally on maintaining a competitive position in nanotechnology.

<ref>{{cite report |last1=Merkle |first1=Ralph |date=22 June 1999 |url=http://www.merkle.com/papers/nanohearing1999.html |title=Nanotechnology: the coming revolution in manufacturing, Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Subcommittee on Basic Research |website=Merkle.com}}</ref>

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Despite the current early developmental status of nanotechnology and molecular nanotechnology,  much concern surrounds MNT's anticipated impact on [[economics]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rfreitas.com/Nano/NoninflationaryPN.pdf |title=N20FR06-p._.pmd |access-date=2010-09-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://lifeboat.com/ex/corporate.cornucopia |title=Corporate Cornucopia: Examining the Special Implications of Commercial MNT Development}}</ref> and on [[law]]. Whatever the exact effects, MNT, if achieved, would tend to reduce the [[scarcity]] of manufactured goods and make many more goods (such as food and health aids) manufacturable.

MNT should make possible [[Nanomedicine|nanomedical]] abilities to cure any medical condition not already cured by advances in other areas. Good health would be common, and poor health of any form would be as rare as [[smallpox]] and [[scurvy]] are today. Even [[cryonics]] would be feasible, as [[cryopreserved]] tissue could be fully repaired.