Increased investments in nanotechnology could lead to breakthroughs such as molecular computers that can store the contents of the Library of Congress in a device the size of a sugar cube, and new materials ten times stronger than steel and a fraction of the weight. Imagine getting a new car as easily as you can get software today - and for the same cost. Download a new kitchen from the Internet, or copy a friend's summer house the same way you copy a computer game.
Computers reproduce information at almost no cost.
A push is well underway at Molecular Robotics to invent devices that manufacture at almost no cost, by manipulating atoms like computers treat bits of information. Today, vast quantities of information can be recreated and then delivered to the other side of the world with only the effort required to click a mouse. The implications of such power are staggering, and yet that is exactly what nanotechnology promises. It is clearly evident that miniaturization of products, particularly in computer electronics, telecommunications and other industries, has been at the forefront of economic growth for the last two decades. Nanotechnology is the next, and final, stage of miniaturization, and it is taking shape at the intersection of chemistry, physics, biology, electrical engineering, computer science, and material science.