In the mid-1980s, engineer K. Eric Drexler founded the modern field of nanotechnology, building upon this concept from von Neumann.[55] Drexler designed an abstract machine that used atoms and molecular fragments found in ordinary substances to provide the materials for his von Neumann–style constructor, which would feature a computer able to direct the placement of atoms.[56] Drexler’s “assembler” could essentially make anything in the world, so long as its structure is atomically stable. It is this flexibility and generalizability that distinguishes the molecular mechanosynthesis approach
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