NanotechnologyJeremy Rifkin wrote, in his article Biotech Century: Playing Ecological Roulette with Mother Natures Design, "Humans have been remaking the Earth for as long as we have had a history." Well, the path of history that humans have chosen to follow also affects how we remake the Earth. Neal Stephenson's novel The Diamond Age shows how the technology of the age reshapes the political, economic, and educational aspects of history. This technology involves manipulating molecules in atomic-sized machines called nanomachines. Stephenson brilliantly shows how a technology as powerful and truly revolutionary as nanotechnology could change life as we know it today, or as life will experience in the future. Nanotechnology, as it exists in the diamond age, is well developed and widely used. Matter Compilers use nanotechnology to make most mass consumer products, and most Matter Compilers are powered by resource providers called Feeds. Those who control the Feeds control nanotechnology and have great political and economic power. These same individuals or groups of individuals called phyles generally represent those who hold the most wealth and political influence in the world. This power and wealth then causes the wealthy citizen or phyle to take for granted what they have so well. These things include the best education, the finest material possessions, inheritance and even responsibility. However, what if this same technology that made the privileged privileged was given to the masses, rich or poor, with the tools and talents to implement such technology? In a sense, making that same power that the upper class took for granted a great equalizer for society to play with. This is a middle of paper that would be excluded from the scope of nanotechnology. Political power could be created and destroyed in a day; education would no longer be a problem in the sense that uneducated people would be a problem; the world would no longer seem to get smaller because we could expand it if necessary - and if there was no more room to expand, we could always expand. The power of nanotechnology may seem like a blessing, but if nanotechnology really was as good as Neal Stephenson made it, then I would embark on an assignment relocation - probably to a more primitive planet. Works cited by Rifkin, Jeremy. Biotech Century: Playing ecological roulette with the design of Mother Nature, the presence of others. 3rd edition. Eds. Lunsford, Andrea. Ruszkiewicz. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. 2000. (244-254) Stephenson, Neal. The diamond age. New York: Bantam Books. 1995.