Tour by map

Alternative overview: Tour by topic

There is something like a universal all encompassing timeless landscape of technology (an abstract concept).
This landscape turns out to be very well suited to give a general overview over the various aspects of the field of atomically precise manufacturing and technology.

Main article: "possibility space"; (1) R&D with (1a) untargeted research discovering more surprising pathway entry points (1b) targeted engineering marching forward on identified pathway entry points; (2) path, especially incremental path with three technology levels (2a,2b,2c); (3) target backward preparatory design (4) far off target: gem-gum factory; (5a) gemstone based metamaterials, (5b) advanced products and (5c) more abstract consequences (good and bad) hard to quantify and blurring into speculation -- (green areas) Exploratory engineering. (dark green) known today.

The landscape is about the range of fundamentally possible of technologies. The range of these possible technologies is determined by physical law. Under the assumption that physical laws do not change in time or space, the fundamental potential of technology too does not change in time or space. (Assuming unchanging physical law should obviously make sense for all practical purposes. Side notes of little relevance on that here).

Uncovering the fundamental potential of technology is thus not about predicting the future as one might suspect. It's about uncovering truths that where already there since the "dawn of time" (and which hold everywhere).

Specifically in the field of atomically precise manufacturing there is the unusual situation that some things that cannot yet be built or directly tested, can already be understood and simulated. Sometimes more reliably, sometimes less. Some major ones of those areas of investigation in the field of APM that feature this unusual situation are depicted as green "islands" in the landscape above. When isolating a strategy to maximize the reliability of such predictions one ends up with the methodology of exploratory engineering.

The big picture – Tour by map

(wiki-TODO: improve formulation; match up with main chapters - replacing "template:Orientation" -- WANTED: two colum info-boxes with minithumbs and maybe circled numbers ❶ ①)

Main article: "possibility space"
TODO: reformat to be more vertical and reformulate

Green areas: Exploratory engineering
Dark green: known (but not yet buildable) today.

(0) Introduction and overview

Basic physics and intuition building and
getting the predictable trapdoors for comprehension of these ideas out of the way.

(1) Developing froward – current R&D

R&D with
(1a) untargeted research discovering more surprising pathway entry points (Accidental path)
(1b) targeted engineering marching forward on identified pathway entry points

Experimental work relevant for or targeted at APMnT contains both.

(2) Possible pathways

Pathways to advanced APM systems

• incremental path with the challenge of three technology levels (2a,2b,2c);
• direct path starting at 2c but here the challenge is the scaling of useful artificial system complexity.

Incremental path

★ First scaling system complexity from Technology level 0 aka "semi biomimetic self assembly"
★ Then climbing up the material capability "technology levels". Possibly with help of the direct path results.

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• (2a) Technology level I aka "soft AP block positional assembly"
• (2b) Technology level II aka In-solvent gem-gum technology … (In solvent force applying mechanosynthesis is still a large white spot on the map still as of 2026)
• (2c) Technology level III aka Gem-gum technology

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• Modular molecular composite nanosystems
• Mechanosynelf assembly assemblinting system

Direct path

★ First already staring high up the material capability "technology levels" ladder.
★ Then scaling up system complexity. Possibly with help of the incremental path results.
This may be seen as anearly (possibly limited) window into (2c) Technology level III.

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Target structuress in general definition.

• Crystolecules & Design of crystolecules

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Eaerlier end of target structures:

• Potential early crystolecular building blocks
• Potential early crystolecular mechanisms

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Mid path wild idea system proposals:

• RepRec pick-and-place robots (GemGum)
• 2D rail-frame based distributed modular pick-place assembly system

(2c/3) Limbo

This spot on the abstract map of tech development had caused and still causes confusion between …
★ proposals for systems for bootstrapping towards productive nanosystems
★ far term target productive nanosystems as the result of exploratory engineering identifying them as worthwhile to put effort in to aim at and them.

Early experimental accessibility asks for
★ more specific designs,
★ risky higly questionable assumptions on what will become possible soon and in what order
… mechanosynthesis: material capabilities, overhang capabilities, strained shell capabilities, passivation capabilities, …
★ and tighter margins of error.

Whereas exploratory engineering asks for
★ casting a wider net exploration
★ with safe conservative assumptions as base
★ and large wasteful safety margins.

These two don't go well together.

Especially

(3) Developing backward – preparatory design

Far term target backward preparatory design.

Examples of diamondoid molecular machine elements:
These and similar are structures that seem chemically stable and good
and that one would like to build eventually but also structures that
are not yet accessible to chemical synthesis (state 2026-09).

The future backward work here involves
investigating and exploring such structures by designing and theoretically modelling them
before they are experimentally buildable.

A main point here is: mapping out the space of possible designs as corner points of a convex hull in high dimensional abstract design space.
Not so much getting structures that will indeed be buildable but classes of structures of some will hopefully be buildable.

There are ideas of mapping out concrete small sub-spaces quite exhaustively like e.g.
the space of incommensurately interdigitating superlubric strained shell slide bearings.

There has been hypothesized a theoretical overhang as a result
that might lead to sudden jump of progress due to pre-done and finished theoretical work before things become physically buildable.
This seems only halfway justified as
★ not all that much exploration has been done yet
★ as stated before the aim is to explore the space rather than concrete

(4) The far term target – kind of targeted manufacturing devices – core exploratory engineering

Gemstone metamaterial on chip factories. the (as of 2026) still far off far term target.
This is the main final culmination and conclusion as the far term target worth aiming for
as a result from the exploratory engineering work done in the book Nanosystems in chaper 14.
Specificlly the table of assembly levels as an example system.
Further chapters on implementation strategies are not part of exploratory engineering.

These ideas are quite faithfully represented in the visual animation movie:
Productive Nanosystems From molecules to superproducts.

(5a) The targeted kind of materials

• Digital control over reversibly composable units of matter

Far term base materials

• Diamondoid, Gemstone-like compound, Base materials with high potential
• NOT: Pure metals and metal alloys

Above the base materials there are Gemstone based metamaterials that allow
to attain lots of emulatable material properties even with just a few high performance base materials.

Low level gemstone structure

• Low level gemstone metamaterial
• Neo-polymorph & Pseudo phase diagram

These are not solid solution thermodynamic nanocrystals of a mixing series with statistic distributions made by thermodynamic means.
These are rather deterministically patterned only kinetically not thermodynamically stable Checkerboard compounds made by force applying mechanosynthesis.

Gemstone based metamaterials

• Gemstone based metamaterial (Mechanical metamaterial, Metamaterial)
• Gem-gum
• Display pixels to gem-gum voxels analogy

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Some examples:

• Emulated elasticity
• Motor muscles
• Infinitesimalbearings
• Chemomechnaical converter & Entropomechanical converter metamaterials. (Energy conversion)

High level homogeneous structure

Cellular shape shifting tangible systems … as sort of high level (mechanical) metamaterials.

Here often this gives generality at the cost of performance and/or efficiency.

Convenient for black box unspecified magic in fiction writings. Think "Computronium", "Whatevertronium"
Most systems will turn out more varied an specialized across the size scales.
The most prototypical example here is probably utility fog.

Related pages:

• Levels of metamaterials
• Likely visual appearance of gem-gum products

(5b) Products, and effects – benefits and risks

• advanced products
  
• Likely visual appearance of gem-gum products

(wiki-TODO: maybe add 0$-OSHW sign to gem-gum-factory infobox)

(5c) Implications

More abstract consequences.
Both good (opportunities) and bad (dangers).
Hard to quantify and blurring into speculation.

• The look of our environment
• World building & future world scenarios. See: Story scenarios
• Most speculative potential applications

Related

• Tour by topic
• Bridging the gaps

Drift-off into philosophical areas:

• Experts and impossibilities
• Reliability of physical laws