With the publication of Engines of Creation in 1986, K. Eric Drexler first introduced the concept of nanotechnology to the general public. Using microscopic machines that would construct things at the molecular level one atom at a time, Drexler wrote, it would be possible not only to build goods more efficiently than any existing manufacturing process, but also to solve many of the world’s current ills. Nanomachines in the bloodstream could track down and kill diseases from cancer to AIDS. Carbon fibers could be built as strong as diamonds and cost less than plastic. Computers several thousand times more powerful than today’s fastest super-computers could be built in a space smaller than a sugar cube. And all this could be accomplished with a technology that was cleaner, cheaper, and easier to handle than those currently in use.