Letters

From the March 2004 issue

(Page 2 of 4)

Howard J. Wooldridge
Fort Worth, TX

The Smaller the Better

Ron Bailey's look at nanotechnology ("The Smaller the Better," December) takes both its most ardent cheerleaders and its most ardent opponents a bit too seriously. As early as 1951, the mathematician John von Neumann laid the groundwork for nanotechnology by showing that a machine can always be designed to build any describable device, including itself. In Profiles of the Future (1963), Arthur C. Clarke wrote at length of the "replicator," which would solve all problems of material demand by producing any desired product on request -- including beefsteaks and cheese omelets. Eric Drexler's "assemblers," described in his book Engines of Creation, are similar.

In recent years, the term nanotechnology has become merely a fashionable buzzword for work with thin films, microscopic fibers, and fine powders. Examples include the self-cleaning windows and spill-resistant pants that Bailey mentions. Their manufacturing processes in no way resemble those imagined by Clarke and Drexler, which call for precise atom-by-atom assembly of products.

No one knows how to do this. Even if it becomes feasible, it may well take too long to be of practical interest. For instance, coral polyps amount to natural assemblers as they build their reefs. Engineers might use them to build a dam. Still, even under the best conditions, coral reefs grow at only three inches per year. At that rate, it would take 3,000 years to build the Hoover Dam.

On the other hand, the Precautionary Principle has little if any legal standing in the U.S. Regulators are not free to impose sweeping bans or moratoria on new technologies merely because they stir poorly defined fears. Instead, the laws governing federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration call for science-based regulation, with a focus on specific, well-defined measures of hazard and risk. Thus, if von Neumann machines indeed become feasible, they will not be outlawed; they will merely be regulated.

T. A. Heppenheimer
Fountain Valley, CA

35 Heroes of Freedom

I'm baffled by the list of great freedom fighters in the December issue ("35 Heroes of Freedom"). If reason wished to include entertainment celebrities, why Madonna, Willie Nelson, and Dennis Rodman? Why not Charlton Heston, who was active in the civil rights movement and later headed the National Rifle Association? Why not Jackie Robinson or George Carlin, whose "up yours"-es to their respective establishments were far more political and influential than any of the above three?

If the point is the pushing of the cultural envelope, why not honor HBO or the creators of South Park, both of whom have pushed the cultural and political envelope a lot more effectively than Rodman or Nelson? I'm not opposed to porn, pot, and body adornment, but they're hardly heroic acts.

Tim Lee
Alexandria, VA

In some cases, it seems reason picked the more prominent person for its "35 Heroes of Freedom" list, rather than the one who really fit the criteria best.

Larry Flynt got the glory, but it was Screw publisher Al Goldstein who supplied the guts. Goldstein even dabbled in Libertarian politics in New York and Miami. Seems the story of Goldstein's life has been overshadowed by Flynt, as when a documentary movie about him, Screwed, came out the same time as The People vs. Larry Flynt.

Similarly, I think Dana Rohrabacher has been a more effective force for freedom in Congress by not sticking out as the "one" in "all-but-one" votes like Ron Paul does. Sure, Paul has a greater following outside Congress and his district, but by going along with the GOP leadership when it was futile to do otherwise, Rohrabacher had more leverage where it counted.

Why no mention of Howard Stern? Surely he's done more to bring pro-freedom ideas before the masses than some of the other figures of popular culture and entertainment that made your list. Stern and Goldstein don't have the liberal cachet of Flynt or Madonna, I guess.