Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-312) and index.

What is nanotechnology? And why is there so much confusion about it? -- A handle on the future: can you take these predictions seriously? -- Current nanotechnology: laboratory and life-and how to get to the real thing from here -- Designing and analyzing nanomachines: theory, current tolls, and the future -- Nuts and bolts: the basics of what a mature nanotechnology will look like -- Engines: making molecular machines go -- A digital technology: atoms are the bits of the material world -- Self-replication: mechanical motherhood -- Food, clothing, and shelter: a day in your life in the age of nanotech --

Economics: how much is this going to cost? -- Transportation: it's a very small world, indeed -- Space: where a much larger world awaits -- Robots: for whatever work there is to be done -- Artificial intelligence: closer than you may think -- Runaway replicators: playing with fire -- Real dangers: the same old bad guys, with nastier toys -- Nanomedicine: fixing what's wrong -- Improvements: a perspective on transhumanism -- The human prospect: living happily ever after.

Flying cars, space travel for everyone, the elimination of poverty and hunger, and powerful new tools to combat disease and even fight aging - these are some of the amazing predicted developments of nanotechnology, the emerging science of designing and building machines at the molecular and atomic levels. [In this book, the author] explains how nanotechnology will make possible many of the science fiction dreams of the past. [In the book, he also] analyzes the benefits as well as the potential risks. -Dust jacket.