Nanotechnology

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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 11px-Wikipedia_logo.jpg (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.

This is likely to end up being a mixture of top-down engineering techniques related to current semi-conductor fabrication and related micro-electro-mechanical systems 11px-Wikipedia_logo.jpg (MEMS), true bottom-up molecular engineering and self-assembly, and derivatives from biotechnology 11px-Wikipedia_logo.jpg. This is likely to give us systems of unprecedented precision, capability and small size that will further revolutionise manufacturing, power generation, agriculture and medicine.

See also Diamond Mechanosynthesis.