How close we are as to being able to utilize nanobots?

[randeezy]

Does anyone know how close we are as to being able to utilize nanobots?

 

[misgfool]

There are no devices available, no industrial production of them and I haven't even seen a proof-of-concept piece. I would say that nanobots are at least 10 years away. Likely even further but 10 years is a long time and predicting future is hard enough already.

 

[randeezy]

true. is there any type of nanotech out there? i think there is. also, 10 years goes by pretty fast, espicially in today's world...

 

[f95toli]

Does anyone know how close we are as to being able to utilize nanobots?

There are some pretty good reasons to believe that "autonomous" nanobots (as seen in sci-fi) are impossible, mainly because most(all?) of the designs that have been suggested so far violate the laws of thermodynamics in one way or another.
This does not mean that e.g. some forms of "nanodelivery" systems will never be used in medicine, but there is no probably no need to worry about a "grey goo" consisting of self-replicating nanobots.

 

[randeezy]

well there was a whole discussion with a board of scientists that said the technology in the book Prey by Michael Crichton was pretty plausible...

maybe... just maybe...

 

[minger]

true. is there any type of nanotech out there? i think there is. also, 10 years goes by pretty fast, espicially in today's world...

People often times confuse nanotechnology with small ships that fly through our arteries blasting away plaque with laser cannons. The roots of the word simply means stuff that's really small. There is a lot of work in nanomaterials that I know of. Building nanocircuits and things like that are also becoming more common.

 

[randeezy]

I know there's a company in Japan that's working on something called NASRO. which stands for Nano-sized Autonomous Semi-Robotic Organism. I hear that they're nearing completion... maybe, who knows...