K. Eric Drexler writes in his accessible new book "Radical Abundance" (PublicAffairs, May 2013) that the digital revolution is about to give way to a form of production that will radically transform the world economy and that could also save the environment: nanotechnology, or more specifically, atomically precise manufacturing (APM).

Being able to produce raw materials on a nano scale — linking molecule to molecule to create new materials — using tools no bigger than a desktop printer will bring about a world where products that were once very expensive, such as solar panels or laptops, will cost next to nothing.

The best analogy from among currently available technology, he says, is 3-D printing, which today is used to create three-dimensional solid objects from digital models.

This is Drexler's first book since the influential "Engines of Creation" (Bantam Doubleday, 1986), which popularized for the first time the concept of nanotechnology. Drexler is currently with the Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology at Oxford University.

He will give a talk at the University at Albany on Monday, in an event co-sponsored by the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. He recently answered questions about his new book.

Q: What kinds of technological developments do you see APM bringing us during, for instance, our children's lifetimes?

A: There has been surprising progress in atomically precise fabrication, which started in chemistry more than a century ago. This progress has brought wide-ranging benefits, particularly in medicine, and these benefits will continue to grow. Well within our children's lifetimes, we can expect to see an enormous acceleration in progress at the threshold of APM.

It is hard to know where to begin in describing potential technological developments at that point, because the applications are so broad — better materials and devices of all kinds, ranging from information technologies to solar energy, to the kinds of products made by conventional industry today.

Picture machines that resemble desktop printers, with raw materials and high-performance products in place of ink and high-resolution images. 3-D printing gives a hint of the possibilities. APM will go much further, enabling us to produce solar arrays, spacecraft and laptop supercomputers for the cost of an equivalent weight of cardboard and aluminum foil.

Q: What are some of the ramifications that APM could have for global economics and particularly for developing economies?

A: When progress in atomically precise fabrication crosses the APM threshold — eventually — we can expect to see radical improvements in products and radical reductions in the cost of making them. APM processes have only modest requirements for materials, energy, and labor, and they can be scaled up rapidly. APM-level technologies can enable material abundance on a global scale, but by the same token could disrupt markets, trade and jobs. There's a lot of thinking to be done about how to manage the transition, and it's not too soon to begin the discussions.

Q: How can APM produce clean energy sources and help us save the environment?

More Information If you go K. Eric Drexler When: 8 p.m. Monday Where: Assembly Hall, Campus Center, University At Albany Uptown Campus Info: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst See More Collapse

A: Producing clean energy is largely a matter of producing the devices that can produce the energy. By producing solar photovoltaic panels with high efficiency and deeply reduced costs, APM can speed the changeover to a zero-net-carbon economy. For example, with low enough renewable energy costs, coal-fired power plants will become uneconomical. APM-level technologies can also enable efficient production of fuels, again with zero net carbon emissions. There are even prospects for removing carbon from the atmosphere at an affordable cost.

Q: What industries do you think will be at the forefront of this technology in the future? If you had a child in high school, say, where would you recommend that he or she think about trying to get a job?

A: Today's best analogy to APM is digital information technology. Both APM and computers work (or will work) by using nanoscale devices to process and organize things at their most fundamental level — bits and bytes in the case of electronics, atoms and molecules in the case of APM. The parallels continue from there: With APM-level technologies, production machinery will resemble a programmable printer, and physical products become analogous to computer images.

What this suggests is that APM technologies will parallel information technologies, transforming the world of material products in a way that resembles today's ongoing transformation of the world of information. I think that this is a good place to begin thinking about the shape of future industry and employment, and that it is time to begin to consider what an APM future could mean for human concerns as well as how best to manage the transition ahead, including jobs and education.

Elizabeth Floyd Mair is a freelance writer. Reach her at elizabethfloydmair@gmail.com.