What Are the Alternatives to Nanotechnology?

[Nick89]

Hi,

I am writing an essay on (the possible risks of) nanotechnology, and one of the assignments is to analyze the alternative techniques available. I honestly can't think of any..?! I suppose I could write about the different techniques nanotechnology improves or replaces, but there are so many small things to write about and not just one large subject, and we only need to use about 300 words so I'm going to have to choose subjects at random, and to be honest I have no clue which I should choose...

The whole assignment does not seem to make sense to me, at least not for the subject of nanotechnology. I mean, if I were writing about electrical cars for example, well sure, the alternatives are fossil fuel, hydrogen fuel etc... Quite easy to compare those techniques. But for nanotechnology? I chose the subject nanotechnology myself, the choice is free for everyone so maybe I just made it hard for myself lol...

Can anyone think of anything sensible I can say about any alternatives of nanotechnology..? Thanks!

 

[valleyman]

hey, I thought you could tighten up the discussion to some particular subjects, e.g. Alternatives to nanotechnology within computer science could be shared computing (even if this doesn't make a lot of sense, they can both reach high calculus speed, but they are not exclusive with each other. Moreover, the advantage of nanotechnology in computing isn't just calculus speed).
I'm just writing some ideas (and I'm not an expert on this) but you're effectively facing an hard matter

 

[Danger]

you're effectively facing an hard matter

That ain't half saying it.
Right up until I started writing this, I honestly couldn't think of one bloody thing that would be capable of replacing nanotech. Then one came to mind, but I doubt very much if it could work, and it still might be considered nanotech anyhow. That would be the use of 'trained' microbes.
You sure picked one stinker of a project. Good luck with it.

 

[Nick89]

Hmm I was afraid of that... Maybe I will mail my tutor, he might agree with me that it is an impossible assignment in my case :p Always worth a try...