UPDATE JULY 9, 2020: GCRI IS NOT ACTIVELY WORKING ON THIS TOPIC AT THIS TIME.

GCRI studies the risks and potential benefits of advanced future nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is a large focus of current scientific and industrial activity, though it is not a significant factor in global catastrophic risk. However, a potential future form of nanotechnology, known as molecular nanotechnology or atomically precise manufacturing, could have a major effect on a range of global catastrophic risks. Yet remarkably, the risks and social issues posed by molecular manufacturing have gone almost completely ignored since a flurry of attention in the early 2000s. Meanwhile, progress on the underlying technology continues, as was recognized by the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which was awarded for work on controllable molecules.

GCRI is working to revive the study of molecular nanotechnology as a risk and social issue. Our initial work has focused on evaluating the societal impacts of molecular nanotechnology, with emphasis on impacts on global catastrophic risk. We are also interested in how the research and development of molecular nanotechnology can be governed so as to improve the impacts. Finally, we are interested in why the study of molecular nanotechnology has fallen out of favor, especially relative to other possible transformative future technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Featured Publications

Evaluating future nanotechnology: The net societal impacts of atomically precise manufacturing

Steven Umbrello and Seth D. Baum. Futures 100, 2018, pp. 63-73, DOI 10.1016/j.futures.2018.04.007.

This paper assesses the net societal impacts of atomically precise manufacturing (APM) in order to inform decisions on whether to encourage APM R&D. The paper examines several sectors: general material wealth, environmental issues, military affairs, surveillance, artificial intelligence, and space travel.