Thanks to the Foresight Institute blog’s May 4, 2013 post where I found out that K. Eric Drexler, author of the 1986 Engines of Creation, which introduced the notion *of nanotechnology to a wider audience, is giving a book tour to support his latest effort, Radical Abundance. Drexler’s own blog, Meta Modern offers detail about the speaking tour in a May 3, 2013 post (I’m excerpting information about the Seattle talk),
Thursday, May 9th, Seattle, WA, 7:30-9:00 pm
Town Hall with University Bookstore, 1119 8th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101. 40-50 minute talk, audience Q&A, and book signing.
Here’s more from the University Bookstore’s event page,
Eric Drexler is the founding father of nanotechnology, the science of engineering on a molecular level—and the science thats about to change the world. Already, says Drexler, author of Radical Abundance, scientists have constructed prototypes for circuit boards built of millions of precisely arranged atoms. This kind of atomic precision promises to change the way we make things (cleanly, inexpensively, and on a global scale), the way we buy things (solar arrays could cost no more than cardboard and aluminum foil, with laptops about the same)—and the very foundations of our economy and environment.
Presented by Town Hall and University Book Store as part of The Seattle Science Lectures, sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU.
Tickets are $5 at www.townhallseattle.org [???] or 888.377.4510 and at the door beginning at 6:30pm. Town Hall members receive priority seating. Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street.
I found the ticket page for the Drexler event here. This is a US speaking tour where Drexler will also be appearing in Albany, New York and in Los Angeles, CA.
While Drexler is important, I would not describe him as the founding father of nanotechnology since there are many people who’ve played key roles and, in some cases, years before Drexler wrote the account of nanotechnology which helped popularize it in the US. (Note: He does not appear to make that claim himself, see the About the Author page on his blog.)
Getting back to Drexler’s latest effort, Radical Abundance, here’s what he had to say about the book in a July 21, 2011 posting on his Meta Modern blog,
Radical Abundance will integrate and extend several themes that I’ve touched on in Metamodern, but will go much further. The topics include:
- The nature of science and engineering, and the prospects for a deep transformation in the material basis of civilization.
- Why all of this is surprisingly understandable.
- A personal narrative of the emergence of the molecular nanotechnology concept and the turbulent history of progress and politics that followed
- The quiet rise of macromolecular nanotechnologies, their power, and the rapidly advancing state of the art
- ….
The book’s publication date is May 7, 2013. I have tried to find a general website where the book can be purchased but increasingly I am directed to Canadian-specific sites where the prices and shipping information are targeted to my location. The book can be purchased from Dexler’s publisher is PublicAffairs or from Amazon.
* The preposition ‘to’ corrected to ‘of’ on Sept. 20, 2013.
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