This is one of my favorite science non-fiction books ever. If you've enjoyed any of the nanotechnology in science fiction in the last few decades, it was probably informed in some way by Drexler's ideas. It's been a decade since I last read this and I just got a copy of my own and look forward to enjoying it again. ( )

Must read for any futurist, optimist... or anyone with a PhD in either physics, CS, engineering, chemistry, biology, medicine... it's worrying how this gem was left aside! Still relevant after so long because it's simply very well thought out. And written very well too. I'm nuts about this book. ( )

http://www.wowio.com/users/product.as...

Engines of Creation 2.0: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology -- Updated and Expanded, is an ebook-only version available for free to readers exclusively through WOWIO. In addition to an updated "look and feel" for the ebook, Engines of Creation 2.0 has been expanded to include the first known lecture on nanotechnology by physicist Richard Feynman, the landmark open letter debate between Dr. Drexler and the late nanotech pioneer and Nobel laureate Dr. Richard Smalley, analysis of the debate by Ray Kurzweil, and a number of new additions by Dr. Drexler, including his advice to aspiring nanotechnologists. ( )

Originally published two decades ago, K. Eric Drexler's classic, thought-provoking examination of nanotechnology is every bit as relevant today, if not moreso. Presented in its entirety on Drexler's own website, the book makes a very concrete case for molecular assembler technology's inevitability, the strength of which is diminished not one bit by the fact that gains in the field have, thus far, been fewer and more far between than some might have guessed upon reading the book in earlier decades.

Far from timid, Drexler's book wrestles with the difficult moral and philosophical questions which will accompany the emergence of molecular assemblers, outlining a wide array of possible consequences for such technology, not all of them appealing. Nanotechnology could allow us to live as immortals amidst a sea of (almost) limitless resources. It could also lead to the extermination of humankind.

My favourite chapter deals with the ways in which nanotechnology will facilitate the colonisation of space, allowing us to harvest resources from asteroids, sail on sunlight, and build whole continents in orbit. ( )