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Biotech protestors must put nanotechnology on the agenda

by Nanobot Invasion (nanobotinvasion [at] ziplip.com)
Nanotechnology (microscopic machines and molecular manufacturing) is all the rage in corporate and university research labs. Nanotech breakthroughs will profoundly impact biosciences. Its time for our movements to develop a critique of this emerging field.
And you thought GMO food was bad.

Fueled by funding from the National Nanotechnology Initiative, National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy and the Department of Defense*, nanotechnology (the science of building new chemical compounds and microscopic machines) is poised to profoundly alter the biosciences and our social reality. Imagine molecule-sized robots capable of manipulating DNA, or invisible "smart dust" walking microchips and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags broadcasting surveillance information across wireless communications networks, or clusters of nanomachines building chunks of matter one atom at a time.
Nanotech and microelectromechanical (MEM) silicon motors are all the rage right now in corporate and university research labs, where breakthroughs in fields such optics, lasers, chemistry, and biotech, as well as a concerted federal funding effort spearheaded by President Clinton's National Nanotechnology Initiative and Oregon Senator Ron Wyden's recent legislation (SB 189), has accellerated this experimentation.
This should be of keen interest to animal rights and biotech activists as nanotechnologists plan to "revolutionize" medical science. Theoretically, nanorobots could be injected into the bloodstream where they would "enhance human performance" by carrying out such tasks as attacking tumors, gene therapy, interfacing by neurological systems to effect cognition (repairing or replacing stem cells, downloadable sensations and memories), monitoring vital signs, acting as tracking devices, augmenting the immune system, etc. Of course, prototypes for these potential applications will be tested in notoriously brutal animal laboratories.

For more information, peruse our website:

http://nanobotinvasion.cjb.net.

It's an attempt to map out the institutionalized relationship between the academic establishment, the military, and the medical and high-tech industries. It's focus is on Oregon, where we are based, but similar developments are happening all over the country, especially in the University of California system (see http://www.fiatpax.net).
We feel that peoples liberation movements, especially people currently working on issues biotech, privacy issues, and end animal experimentation must begin keep a close eye on nanotech. We need to develop a critique of what these new technologies mean and what their social and political impacts will be, and of how nanotech relates to other technologies such as RFID, the emerging wireless internet, biotech, "smart clothes" (wearable computers), sports science, bioinformatics (digitalization of healthcare, Orwellian medical database mining) etc. We need to start tracking who is doing what. We need to start educating the public at large about what sorts of research their tax dollars are funding. Unfortunately, with the anti-biotech movement largely in the dark about nano, we've got a long way to go.

see also the book: Nanotechnology & Homeland Security: New Weapons for New Wars
By Daniel Ratner, Mark A. Ratner, James Murday


Good luck in the streets, everyone!!!


*Other key players include microchip manufacturers such as Intel, the defense industry (ie Honeywell, Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, Hewlett Packard, etc), Eric Drexler's Foresight Institute, Berkeley-based Dust Inc (UCB prof John "every since I was a kid I wanted to make silicon walk" Pistor's company, leaders in the smart dust field), Silicon Valley's NanoMuscle, the phramacuetical industry (esp. DuPont), the US Army's Natick Soldier Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (home of the creepy Institute for Soldier Nanotech smart clothes lab) and, strangely enough, Nike, who are spending big bucks to manufacture the biogenically enhanced athlete (soldier?) of the future at their Sports Research Lab and techlab (Nike also maintains are rather cozy relationship with the University of Oregon and have even tested new technologies on the Oregon Ducks football team).

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