Nanotechnology

The advanced automation section has mainly focused on automation technologies using robotics and 'macro'-scale systems, as it describes 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 over information using computers. See also related Diamond Mechanosynthesis.

This is likely to end up being a mixture of top-down engineering techniques related to current semi-conductor fabrication  and micro-electro-mechanical systems  (MEMS), true bottom-up molecular engineering and self-assembly, and derivatives from biotechnology . This is likely to give us systems of unprecedented precision, capability and small size that will further revolutionise manufacturing, power generation, agriculture and medicine.

(However as interesting and capable as advanced nanotechnology is likely to be, it is not actually a requirement for the development of an advanced post-scarcity society - it is something that could be achieved with today's macro-scale technology).