Business - Written Tuesday, February 19, 2008 by Don Tapscott - 0 Comments

Two sides of the nanotechnology story

I found this combination of stories on Wired very, very interesting. The first is on the Chinese Government’s plans for nanotechnology, based on interviews with 60 Chinese officials. The research was set-up in the specific context of China’s stated, over-arching goal of leap-frogging the west by learning from them (technology transfer) and increasing domestic research capacity (indigenous innovation). Nanotechnology is identified as one of four Chinese science “megaprojects”, and the central goal is to catch-up to the U.S. on research capability by 2020.

The second is also on the topic of nanotechnology – specifically, that only 1/3 of Americans believe Nanotechnology is morally acceptable. Notably, this compares to slightly over half in European countries. The researcher claims the lack of belief in America is explained almost entirely by religion. While a plausible case may be made, I’ll remind you of a quote from Brendan’s recent post – a prediction that intelligent nanobots go into our brains through capillaries and interact directly with our biological neurons. I could see quite a few people, religous and otherwise, resisting that.

Regardless of the exact explanation, there are a lot of interesting wikinomics angles to consider on the nanatechnology front… particularly as it relates to different government structures around the world, innovation, globalization, etc.