Re: Nanotech at work . . .
Actually even though I'm only partly into the book I think Brooks agrees with this. His story is that we will NOT be replaced by robot AIs, instead we'll "evolve" into hybrid bio/silicon (not that it will be silicon per se) creatures, creatures who will be the deservedly superior masters of the pure hardware "robots" as we envision them today.
-p (and, on page 79 he says that Spires is a potatohead)