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OPINION: Chicken Little is Still Alive and Squawking
Friday, January 18, 2002
By Bartlett Cleland

Cleland is director of the IPI Center for Technology Freedom.
This article was originally published in IPI Insights, a publication of the Insititute for Policy Innovation in Lewisville.



New technologies give rise to echoes of old fears



Those who fear the future will continue to whip up fear and concern rather than to engage in logical and productive analysis. Because to fear the future rather than to shape it correctly is a sure means to a disastrous outcome.



In the early 19th century, a group of well-meaning but misguided Englishmen known as the Luddites dug in their heels and tried to resist the Industrial Revolution. Fearing that technology was moving too fast and the social displacement that would result, the Luddites waged a 15-month period of civil disobedience. Fortunately, they failed to forestall the Industrial Revolution, which brought unparalleled prosperity and all the benefits that come from prosperity.

The past 200 years have brought an age of wonder with constant life-changing inventions and mind-stretching advances. But every step forward has had its accompanying Luddites -- the skeptics, the fearful and opportunists who express their outrage at progress. Today, their latest fear is nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of materials at the molecular level with the intention of manufacturing new and better products. By manipulating these tiny particles, researchers can build products atom by atom, including cell-sized machines. The development of these techniques will eventually trigger another technology revolution, one far beyond anything seen today.

Nanotechnology will spawn dramatic technological change. For instance, imagine paving the nation's highway system with nano-solar collectors, turning every street and highway in the nation into a gigantic solar collector. Manufacturing will be streamlined to exactness because products will be designed and built with molecular precision. Materials will be stronger, lighter, more conductive and more durable. The current man-sized cables on the Golden Gate Bridge could be replaced with cables the size of a thumb. Tire treads could be enhanced to prevent accidents. Think of the potential in medicine when microscopic machines circulate through the body, scouring your veins and arteries clean of plaque, preventing stroke and heart attack.

But already the fear-mongers are lining up to proclaim that nanotechnology will bring about the end of all humanity -- a familiar refrain from those who fear the future. Much as Chicken Little did, these folks scream that the sky is falling even before they know the facts.
(More: Dallas Business Journal News Source)
2002 © IPI Center for Technology Freedom.

Dan