The World in 2030

84 The World in 2030
Nanotechnology can also be used to provide plastics and
other materials with special properties (e.g. antiseptic, anti-
UV, fire-resistant, heat-absorbing, stain resistant and electrical
conducting functions) but the term also encompasses research
into engineering at a molecular level, experimentation that
is expected to lead to truly astonishing developments.
Molecular nanotechnology 168 (MNT) when fully
developed will, theoretically, allow us to construct almost
anything from the atomic level up, including food, water,
computers and even nano-scale robots which will carry
drugs to the precise site at which they are needed in the
human body.
Nano-optimists, 169 including many governments (and
futurists), see nanotechnology delivering environmentally
benign material abundance for the world’s population
by providing universal clean water supplies; atomically
engineered food and crops resulting in greater agricultural
productivity with less labour and land requirements;
nutritionally enhanced interactive ‘smart’ foods; cheap
and powerful energy generation; clean and highly efficient
manufacturing; radically improved formulation of drugs,
diagnostics and human organ replacement; much greater
information storage and communication capacities;
interactive ‘smart’ appliances; and increased human
performance through convergent technologies.
Critics of MNT development 170 suggest that
nanotechnology will simply exacerbate problems stemming
from existing socio-economic inequity and the unequal
distribution of power by creating greater inequities between