Drexlerian nanotech

[Drashner1]

Anyway, who did think up this idea of free-ranging nanoswarms (which we rather egregiously used at one point)?

I don't know that the idea really can be traced back to any one person. Rather it may have simply been a meme that took root and grew inside the popular zeitgeist.

One of the main ideas (perhaps THE main idea) with nanotech when it first entered the popular attention was the idea of tiny self repping machines that could do amazing things. And the idea of grey goo was both amazing and scary (which tends to grab people's attention).

While the notion of nanofabs (Tea, Earl Grey, Hot - or almost) is very cool, the idea of starting with something that can fit on the head of a pin and remaking entire worlds or solar systems - or possibly destroying ourselves - is a bit more 'Ooh shiney' (and easier to comprehend) at the end of the day. So people may have kind of latched onto that idea and run with it - including in SF, which is in the business of...business at the end of the day.

And some years later - here we are.

Just a theory,

Todd