Nanobot Swarm!
In 1996, I traveled to another world in my mind. No, this was not due to a mind-altering substance I had taken, but instead because of a sci-fi novel that showed me what was possible.
In this world, ultra-tiny machines were everywhere, and there were trillions of them. These nanites, or nanobots (as most probably know them today) were constantly scrubbing the air clean of pollutants and harmful microbes. There were even tiny robots that could be injected into the bloodstream to enhance a person's eyesight, reflexes, or even intelligence.
It felt as though nanobots had been injected into my own brain, enhancing my imagination.
This simple concept—and the way that Neil Stephenson spelled this out in The Diamond Age, with explanations that jibed with my understanding of physics and engineering—opened my mind up to the idea that nanotechnology was a very real possibility, and that led me down a path of discovery that continues today, almost three decades later.
I want to bring you along with me for that journey today.
In my conversations with you here, I keep returning to Richard Feynman. I can’t help myself: Feynman’s impact on my own life is profound, and his view of the world has helped to shape my own. In 1959, he gave a lecture at an American Physical Society meeting at Caltech he called “There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.”
It’s not unreasonable to state that this was the conceptual birth of nanotechnology. Here was Feynman—a Nobel Laureate physicist—talking about how matter could be manipulated at the molecular and even atomic level. You can read the transcript of Feynman’s talk here if you’d like.
Here, Feynman also talked information storage at the atomic level, ushering in ever-smaller and faster computers over time, eventually getting them to the microscopic scale. We’re getting really close to this today!
Almost 30 years after Feynman, Eric Drexler entered the chat with Engines of Creation, a seminal work in nanotech. Published in 1986, Engines takes Feynman’s ideas much further, bringing them into the realm of practical application.
Drexler envisioned a world where machines at the molecular scale—molecular assemblers—could construct objects atom by atom, creating materials and devices with unprecedented precision. The concept of a “factory in a box” is one of my favorite Drexlerisms.
Another really good phrase Drexler coined is “grey goo” to describe what might happen once nanobots are able to self-replicate. The idea is that they need to consume raw material in order to create more nanobots, and could be programmed to find this autonomously.
Feynman passed the torch to Drexler, who set the stage for great sci-fi writing in the 90s, including Stephenson, but the big screen (and the tiny screen) weren’t quite ready for good visual representations of nanotechnology until the early 2000s.
Movies and TV
Many folks are probably reading this and thinking about the T-1000 from Terminator 2, with the liquid metal that can repair itself and change shape. That’s certainly nanotech, but for something more central to the plot—and with more specifically nano-visuals—we need to move forward a few more years to allow moviemaking technology to develop.
The first time I saw a nanobot swarm on film that really looked cool was The Day The Earth Stood Still. You really got a sense of how a swarm would work, and how it might start taking over the planet. Here’s a clip:
Transcendence took it up another notch, showing both negative and positive implications of nanotech:
Today, we’re fast approaching tiny robots swimming inside your body, but we’re not there yet. Here’s a conversation I had with Mike Haydell, a DNA nanotechnology specialist. You can see that the “factory in a box” and “nanobots swimming inside your body” era is actually frustratingly far off in some regards, but a lot of research is being done in a lot of spaces.
Sci-Friday
This piece is a part of a celebration of all things science fiction we call Sci-Friday. When I sat down to write, I thought about all the ways science fiction has woven ideas into my mind over the years. Nanotech is one of those compelling concepts that has stuck with me ever since I was first introduced to it.
As always, I want to call your attention to the other writers who are also doing something today. If you want to hear recommendations about what to watch or read, or learn a little something about sci-fi, these authors are your huckleberries.
, , , , and are folks I’m always talking with, with me commenting on their writing or them on mine. I love that we exchange sci-fi observations and recommendations. wrote a nice History of Science Fiction, and took down his paywall just for us. , , , and - I’ve enjoyed collaborating with all of you, and look forward to whatever you come up with! , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and round out a very robust list of passionate sci-fi fans who also happen to be writers. Check their stuff out!Have you noticed other good examples of nanotechnology in sci-fi? Feel free to give a shout to something important I’ve missed, or just add to the conversation with what you’re watching this week.
Off the top of my head I can’t think of a nano or movie but your post did make me think of the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage one of whose stars was the ever lovely Raquel Welch. It was about miniaturizing a team of doctors/scientists and injecting them into the human beings bloodstream to travel to the brain and fix a blood clot. It’s one of my favorite sci-fi movies from my childhood.
Michael Crichton book Prey. Swarms of nanobots as humanoids.