Nanotechnology

The advanced automation section has thus far focused on automation technologies using robotics and 'macro'-scale systems, as it is describing systems that could be achieved with today's technology. However, even more sophisticated and capable technology using nano-scale devices  (at the atomic and molecular scale) are likely to be feasible in the coming decades, that could ultimately give us a similar level of control over matter that we currently have in the information domain using computers.

This is likely to end up being a mixture of true bottom-up molecular engineering and derivatives from biotechnology  giving us machines of unprecedented precision, capability and small size that will further revolutionise manufacturing, power generation, agriculture and medicine.

See also Diamond Mechanosynthesis.