Nanoweapons: A Growing Threat to Humanity.

https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/AUPress/Book-Reviews/Display/Article/1731239/nanoweapons-a-growing-threat-to-humanity/


Nanoweapons: A Growing Threat to Humanity

Published Jan. 14, 2019

Nanoweapons: A Growing Threat to Humanity by Louis A. Del Monte. Potomac 
Books, 2017, 244 pp.

When new technologies cross from industry to the battlefield, calls 
arise to slow the process and consider international implications of 
using these weapons. Louis A. Del Monte’s Nanoweapons is one of those 
calls. A physicist and former executive at IBM and Honeywell, Del Monte 
led advancements in microelectronics and sensors. His work is a serious 
attempt to use publicly available information to address the development 
and use of nanotechnology as weapons. The author brings together ideas 
normally relegated to science fiction (e.g., laser weapons, artificial 
intelligence, and self-replicating nanorobots) and uses his technical 
background to inform the reader as to what is science fact. While his 
most alarming predictions for humanity’s survival project to the year 
2050 and beyond, he argues that his concerns are timely. He indicates 
that while revolutionary military nanotechnologies (e.g., stealth 
aircraft) may take decades to field, they are none­theless currently 
being developed. Now, according to the author, is the time to discuss 
the dangers of nanoweapons.

The author’s main thesis is that nanoweapons are a danger to humanity 
that demand greater attention. Despite the secrecy surrounding the 
development of nanoweapons, Del Monte is confident of their threat. This 
fear is based in part on the ranking of nanotech­nology weapons by the 
Global Catastrophic Risk Conference at the University of Oxford as the 
most probable means to cause human extinction by the end of this 
century. Ex­amples of nanoweapons discussed in the book include 
nano-enhanced lasers, smaller munitions with increased explosive force, 
and self-replicating smart nanorobots (SSN). SSNs search for and destroy 
targets without human input and self-replicate with materi­als found in 
the environment. According to the author, SSNs are gravely dangerous 
nanoweapons that humanity should prohibit. Central to his concern for 
humanity’s sur­vival is what he sees as the inherent difficulty in 
mounting defenses to nanoweapons given their capability to avoid 
detection and the ability of those who use these arms to escape 
attribution. While considerable resources have been dedicated to 
countering nu­clear weapons, little is publicly known about protection 
from nanoweapons. This is espe­cially concerning to the author because 
some nanoweapons have characteristics similar to biological pathogens. 
Giving his readers reason to be apprehensive, Del Monte turns to 
explaining how today’s nanotechnology can be used to create nanoweapons.

While nanotechnology is already improving our computers, sunscreens, and 
building materials, the first section of the book provides the 
nontechnical reader an easy-to-understand introduction to nanotechnology 
and how it may be used in arms development. The author organizes 
nanoweapons into five categories: offensive strategic, defensive 
stra­tegic, offensive tactical, defensive tactical, and passive. 
Examples are provided for each category, along with an explanation of 
its offensive, defensive, or passive nature. For in­stance, the 
offensive strategic category includes artificially intelligent 
nanorobots that can target particular individuals, hypersonic glide 
missiles (whose development will rely on developing certain 
nanomaterials), nano-enhanced fuels, and nonelectric guidance sys­tems. 
The other categories include additional guidance for organizing 
nanoweapons. While readers will find these categories helpful, a 
workable definition of nanoweapons is missing.

With this deep level of organization dedicated to understanding 
nanoweaponry, the reader would hope for a more useful definition of 
nanoweapons. Nanoweapons are de­fined in the book’s glossary as “any 
military technology which exploits the use of nano­technology (229).” 
Although this definition will capture all nanoweapons, it will also 
include many items that are not weapons. This definition would include a 
military fi­nance office using a publicly available desktop computer 
with a nanomanufactured mi­crochip. Is building a weapon with 
nanomanufactured components all that is required to make the weapon a 
nanoweapon? If a dry-docked ship is sprayed with anticorrosive 
nanocoating—increasing its hull strength tenfold (as an MIT study 
referenced in the book suggests)—is the ship now a nanoweapon? The book 
makes clear that nanotechnol­ogy is an enabling technology that will 
empower a wide range of civilian and military applications. But it does 
not wrestle with the problem that an SSN is fundamentally different than 
an anticorrosive nanocoating. This issue of defining nanotechnology is a 
common attribute of nascent scientific fields, but the reader is 
nevertheless left wanting more. Without addressing this definitional 
problem directly, Del Monte instead uses other methods to discover what 
nations are emerging as nanoweapon leaders.

He categorizes the factors needed to facilitate nanoweaponry development 
and sorts nations by these factors into the Nanoweapons Offensive 
Capability of Nations (NO­CON) list. The most powerful group, nanoweapon 
nations—such as the United States and China—has the ability to 
commercialize nanotechnology, possesses a national desire to strengthen 
its militaries, and demonstrates an ability to partner with other 
leading nanotechnology nations. Del Monte goes on to mention other 
nations on his NOCON list, all of which have varying interactions with 
nanotechnology. Giving the reader reason to be concerned for the 
international implications his NOCON suggests, he then high­lights the 
events that may tip us into a nanoweapon-driven war.

He predicts two singularities that will spawn nanoweapon-related 
international dis­ruptions. In addition to the creation of SSNs, the 
other singularity is the advent of arti­ficial intelligence (AI) that 
will exceed human intellect. AI will solve many of humanity’s greatest 
problems, the author posits, but it will also create better SSNs. If AI 
and SSNs are combined, alliances will form to maintain advantages in a 
new cold war around the development of AI-powered SSNs. Given their 
importance, international power will then be rebalanced around 
nanoweapon capabilities. Nuclear weapon use will increase since 
nanotechnology will empower their miniaturization and reduce their 
fallout. It is these disruptions, brought on by the AI and SSN 
singularities, that Del Monte claims will dramatically increase the 
chance of human extinction by 2100. Given this pessimistic prediction, 
Nanoweapons next discusses reasons for hope.

The author maintains some optimism for humanity. He notes that humanity 
has en­gaged in conflict since the beginning of our existence, but 
recent developments, such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of 
Nuclear Weapons and the Biological Weapons Convention, show that 
humanity can act to prevent its extinction. Once humanity comes to know 
the existential threat that nanoweapons represent, humanity will act to 
limit their use and thus avert disaster. What we recognize when we use a 
new personal com­puter, he argues, is not the nanotechnology enabling 
its use but the impressive perfor­mance it achieves. The author states 
that humans understand technology by its function, not the technology 
itself. Thus, to forestall the need to demonstrate a nanoweapon’s threat 
to humanity, he indicates that current treaties and conventions 
concerning weap­ons of mass destruction should also regulate strategic 
nanoweapons.

A workable and more precise definition of nanoweapons will improve this 
area of study by allowing policy makers to grapple with nanoweaponry 
development. It will empower leaders to specifically categorize an 
adversary’s capabilities and document who is developing nanoweapons with 
greater specificity. Assuming that Del Monte’s cata­strophic predictions 
are accurate, more scenarios are needed to better inform technolo­gists, 
military commands, and national leaders working on ways to prevent the 
negative implications of these technologies. This work is worth reading 
because it ties together the technical, political, economic, and 
practical challenges associated with nanoweapons. The initial portion of 
the book is especially worthwhile for those seeking an approachable 
introduction to nanotechnology and its use as weaponry. Suggestions for 
additional read­ing in this area of futurism are Peter W. Singer’s Wired 
for War and Michio Kaku’s Phys­ics of the Future. Strategic leaders will 
appreciate the discussions on organizational prob­lems associated with 
fielding nanoweapons and rebalancing international power. Tactical 
leaders will find themselves working through different ways to use and 
defend against nanoweapons. Finally, fans of science fiction will 
appreciate a technical introduction to many real concepts previously 
relegated to fantasy.

Maj Patrick M. Milott, USAF