Feynman (MLA Citation) Plenty Room at Bottom

Feynman (MLA Citation)

Plenty Room at Bottom

There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom

At the dawn of the 1960's the world was entering a new age of great technological advancements which Richard P. Feynman discussed in a speech that has been immortalized in print ever since. In "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom," Feynman, a physicist, discussed a simple question, how small can one go? In other words, he pondered the idea of tiny machines and discussed how one could go about building them. The "bottom" he argued was the infinitesimal space that one encounters as they become smaller and smaller; and as one entered the realm of the minuscule they could find an almost limitless amount of space in which to operate.

Feynman began his discussion with the idea of printing the entire Encyclopedia Britannica on the head of a pin. After examining the physics of performing such a feat, he came to the conclusion that it was not only possible, but that it was technologically feasible. Through the use of microscopes and other means, printing the entire encyclopedia on the head of a pin could indeed be done. Which brought Feynman to the next question, how could something be written that small? Even with 1950's technology, Feynman postulated a number of means by which this could be accomplished ranging from miniaturized etching to light beams. But the reason why humans would want to do such things was what Feynman believed was truly important: the transmission of large amounts of information easily and efficiently. By demonstrating that information can be transferred through amazingly small print, Feynman provided just one reason why smaller can be better.

The transfer of information through smaller and smaller means is just a way for humans to copy the way nature has been operating. For example, Feynman and his colleagues in the 1950's knew that DNA could carry the totality of the human genome, even if the exact means were not known. This was due to the inadequacies involved in 1950's technology and Feynman next discussed the limits of the technology at the time, specifically the limitations of the electron microscope. But even though the science of the time predicted that these machines had reached the pinnacle of their abilities, Feynman, with a belief in the future, predicted that this would not always be the case and that scientists would find a way around these limitations.

Since Feynman proposed faith in humans to overcome the problems involved in miniaturization, he next discussed the actual building of tiny machines and the technological difficulties involved. To reproduce wires and circuits, Feynman put forward the idea of evaporation as a means of creating a type of tiny circuit board. But as one becomes smaller and smaller, the way the laws of nature effect physical things like machines begins to change. For instance, tiny machines would not need lubricant for bearings because the heat generated by such small bearings would be negligible.

The question of exactly how one could actually build a tiny machine was next tackled by the author as he presented a uniquely interesting means of astonishing this task. Through the use of robotic devices, Feynman proposed that he could use a robotic device to create another robotic device that was smaller. By using the second, smaller robotic device, he could then build a third, smaller one, with which he could then build a fourth and so on. Eventually he could create a series of robotic devices so small that they could actually build other tiny devices and machines, thereby creating miniaturization. And finally, as Feynman discussed the possibility of making things smaller and smaller, he confronted the ultimate extension of the question: whether or not one could actually manipulate individual atoms. But with the manipulation of atoms comes a number of interesting effects of operating at the atomic level. As Feynman stated "at the atomic level, we have new kinds of forces and new kinds of possibilities, new kinds of effects." (Feynman 36)

The article titled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" not only proposed a number of possibilities, but also spent time discussing how such things could be accomplished. For example, Feynman's claim that the encyclopedia could be printed on the head of a pin is backed up by mathematical evidence supporting the claim. His claim that tiny machines could also be created is supported by the idea of using evaporation to make extremely thin electrical elements. But the proposal on how to create a series of smaller and smaller robotic devices in order to then create tiny machines is simply genius.

In addition, Feynman's arguments are not only compelling, but presented in such a way as to be orderly and logical. One example is the way he presented a secondary argument, the printing of an encyclopedia on the head of a pin, as a demonstration of his primary argument of being able to build smaller and smaller machines. Since he was able to prove mathematically that such a secondary endeavor was possible, his next claim that machines could be built extremely small was already supported. And when he came up with actual means by which to construct these tiny machines, evaporation and robotic devices, his claims did not seem far-fetched, or in the realm of science fiction, but reasonable and viable. The author also managed to dismiss the problems associated with building normal-sized machines by demonstrating that natural forces work differently at smaller levels and this would not be problematic.

If there is one thing missing from Feynman's argument it is the lack of any type of experimentation of his claims and ideas. While he is able to demonstrate through mathematics and other means that such claims are possible, he has absolutely no concrete experimental evidence to support his claims. In short, he has never made a tiny machine, or attempted to do so. Without such experimental activity, Feynman's claims will remain in the realm of theory, without the insight gained from experimentation. There could be a variety of new problems, or solutions which could only be discovered through the actual construction of tiny machines. Theory is the basis but experimentation is the proof.