Dual-Use Technology

B) Designed, improved, encapsulated, military, made, aided, wide-range, predesigned, packed

Like electricity or computers before it, nanotech will offer greatly improved efficiency in almost every facet of life. But as a general-purpose technology, it will be dual-use, meaning it will have many commercial uses and it also will have many (_____) uses—making far more powerful weapons and tools of surveillance. Thus it represents not only wonderful benefits for humanity, but also grave risks.

A key understanding of nanotechnology is that it offers not just better products, but a vastly (_____) manufacturing process. A computer can make copies of data files—essentially as many copies as you want at little or no cost. It may be only a matter of time until the building of products becomes as cheap as the copying of files. That's the real meaning of nanotechnology, and why it is sometimes seen as "the next industrial revolution."

The power of nanotechnology can be (_____) in an apparently simple device called a personal nanofactory that may sit on your countertop or desktop. (____) with miniature chemical processors, computing, and robotics, it will produce a (_____) of items quickly, cleanly, and inexpensively, building products directly from blueprints. To build a personal nanofactory (PN), you need to start with a working fabricator, a nanoscale device that can combine individual molecules into useful shapes. A fabricator could build a very small nanofactory, which then could build another one twice as big, and so on. Within a period of weeks, you have a tabletop model.

Products (_____) by a PN will be assembled from nanoblocks, which will be fabricated within the nanofactory. Computer (____) design (CAD) programs will make it possible to create state-of-the-art products simply by specifying a pattern of (_____) nanoblocks. The question of when we will see a flood of nano-built products boils down to the question of how quickly the first fabricator can be (_____) and built.

What could nanofactories produce?

-Lifesaving medical robots or untraceable weapons of mass destruction.

-Networked computers for everyone in the world or networked cameras so governments can watch our every move.

-Trillions of dollars of abundance or a vicious scramble to own everything.

-Rapid invention of wondrous products or weapons development fast enough to destabilize any arms race.

VII. Use the correct word to complete the sentences.

nanoblocks, understanding, manufacturing, personal nanofactory, fabricator

1. A key ___________of nanotechnology is that it offers not just better products, but a vastly improved _________ process.

2. The power of nanotechnology can be encapsulated in a simple device called a__________.

3. А personal nanofactory (PN), you need to start with a working _______, a nanoscale device that can combine individual molecules into useful shapes.

4. A _______could build a very small nanofactory.

5. Products made by a PN will be assembled from___________.