Radical Abundance Quotes

“A radically unconventional future cannot be accommodated within the framework of plans made for a different world.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Standard engineering delivers artifacts; exploratory engineering delivers knowledge.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Today, a radical abundance of symphony and song—and words, and images, and more—has brought luxuries that once had required the wealth of a king to the ears and eyes of ordinary people in billions of households. It seems that our future holds a comparable technology-driven transformation, enabled by nanoscale devices, but this time with atoms in place of bits. The revolution that follows can bring a radical abundance beyond the dreams of any king, a post-industrial material abundance that reaches the ends of the Earth and lightens its burden.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“We’ve seen the emergence of a gift economy in digital products such as software, text, images, and video; the natural course of events would see this pattern extend to APM product-design files, leading (aside from the cost of input materials) to a gift economy in physical objects (but within what mandated constraints?).”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Studies of Earth’s chemical and geophysical cycles indicate that temperatures and CO2 levels would remain high for centuries even if emissions were cut to zero today; thus, it seems that only atmospheric carbon capture technologies can provide a large enough drain to lower CO2 levels quickly and deeply.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Besides carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, these useful abundant elements include silicon and aluminum, both common in the Earth’s crust.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Adding Up Costs Summing the two major costs above—raw materials and energy—while absorbing the smaller costs into the large rounding error yields a typical, estimated, physical cost of about twenty cents per effective, structural mass–adjusted kilogram.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The bottom line: In physical terms, the cost of production equipment adds an almost negligible increment to product cost. Indeed, the physical cost of capital per unit output would remain affordable even for equipment used at 1 percent of capacity, like a home washing machine used for just a few hours a week.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The bottom line: APM-based production systems would naturally tend to be safer than current industrial plants, and stringent safety regulations could be easily met.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The bottom line: Advanced production systems need not produce noxious emissions, greenhouse gases, or toxic wastes, and could meet zero-tolerance emission regulations at little cost.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The bottom line: The labor required for APM is external to the production process, with no labor cost incurred by the process itself.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The bottom line: By comparison to current industrial systems, the land area required for APM-based production is negligible”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The bottom line: Most raw materials needed for APM products are common and inexpensive, costing less than one dollar per kilogram. With an adjustment for reductions in mass, this gives a cost equivalent to about ten cents per kilogram, a cost per “effective kilogram.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“ASKING THREE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS “What can be made?” “What can it do?” “How much will it cost to produce?”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Conventional engineering aims to provide competitive products, exploratory engineering aims to provide confident knowledge, and these radically different objectives call for different methods.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Exploratory engineering is the art of applying scientific knowledge and engineering methods to explore the potential of future technologies. Three rules describe its essential methods: • Rule 1: Explore systems of kinds that current tools can’t build. • Rule 2: Ask only questions that current science can answer. • Rule 3: Think like an engineer.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Exploratory engineering, however, asks a different, less familiar question: “How can we apply existing knowledge to explore the scope of potential products that cannot yet be delivered?”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“SCIENCE ASKS, “How can we discover new knowledge?” Engineering asks, “How can we deliver new products?”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“In logical terms, a universal physical theory corresponds to a universally quantified statement: “For all potential physical systems . . .,” while an engineering design corresponds to an existentially quantified statement: “There exists a potential physical system. . . .” One counterexample can disprove the first, while one positive example can prove the second.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Accuracy can only be judged with respect to a purpose and engineers often can choose to ask questions for which models give good-enough answers.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Might predictions be wrong by as much as 10 percent, and for poorly understood reasons? The reasons may pose a difficult scientific puzzle, yet an engineer might see no problem at all. Add a 50 percent margin of safety, and move on.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The moral of the story: When considering an engineering problem, beware of letting related unknowns distract attention from well-understood solutions.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Scientific inquiry faces toward the unknown, and this shapes the structure of scientific thought; although scientists apply established knowledge, the purpose of science demands that they look beyond it.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Systems-level engineering is a discipline radically different from science, though it must conform to the same physical reality.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The view from the top of scientific inquiry is widely understood, in a general way. Theorists seek and test precise explanations of observations of the natural world, and successful theories are, in a sense, predetermined by nature. The view from the top of engineering design is radically different and less often discussed. When engineers architect systems, they make abstract choices constrained by natural law, yet not fully specified and in no sense predetermined by nature.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Scientists seek unique, correct theories, and if several theories seem plausible, all but one must be wrong, while engineers seek options for working designs, and if several options will work, success is assured. •​Scientists seek theories that apply across the widest possible range (the Standard Model applies to everything), while engineers seek concepts well-suited to particular domains (liquid-cooled nozzles for engines in liquid-fueled rockets). •​Scientists seek theories that make precise, hence brittle predictions (like Newton’s), while engineers seek designs that provide a robust margin of safety. •​In science a single failed prediction can disprove a theory, no matter how many previous tests it has passed, while in engineering one successful design can validate a concept, no matter how many previous versions have failed.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“In scientific inquiry information flows from matter to mind, but in engineering design information flows from mind to matter: •​Inquiry extracts information through instruments; design applies information through tools. •​Inquiry shapes its descriptions to fit the physical world; design shapes the physical world to fit its descriptions.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“Thus, in scientific inquiry, knowledge flows from bottom to top: •​Through observation and study, physical systems shape concrete descriptions. •​By suggesting ideas and then testing them, concrete descriptions shape scientific theories.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The essence of science is inquiry; the essence of engineering is design. Scientific inquiry expands the scope of human perception and understanding; engineering design expands the scope of human plans and results.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

“The Human Genome Project, in effect, began with an elephant, while Apollo began with a conceptual system design. One succeeded through almost independent inquiry; the other demanded the tightest project integration that the world had ever seen.”
― K. Eric Drexler, Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization