Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: The Singularity of Nanovision 1
1. Nanotechnology in the Age of Posthuman Engineering: Science as Science Fiction 19
2. Small Worlds: Beyond the Limits of Fabrication 59
3. The Horrors of Goo: Molecular Abjection and the Domestication of Nanotechnology 111
4. Nano/Splatter: Disintegrating the Postbiological Body 161
Notes 189
Bibliography 231
Index 267

Promotional Information

Examines the cultural history of nanotechnology in contemporary literature, film, and digital media

About the Author

Colin Milburn is Assistant Professor of English and a member of the Science and Technology Studies Program at the University of California, Davis.

Reviews

"There has been so much hype and controversy surrounding nanotech that it has been hard to figure out what it really is or might become. This wonderful book spectacularly clarifies matters, providing the new field with its history and with a paradigm that allows us to judge its present situation and whatever future may emerge. That Colin Milburn is also often wickedly funny is much appreciated, and a very appropriate response to nanotech's constant evocations of paradise or apocalypse."--Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy "A paradox: we see the future utterly transformed by nanotechnology and related technosciences; because the future is transformed, we cannot see it at all. Spiraling out from this central insight, Nanovision explores the cultural and social implications of nanotechnology through a wide range of material-semiotic-discursive effects. Witty, incisive, and insightful, Nanovision is essential reading for anyone interested in where we are now and where we might be headed."--N. Katherine Hayles, Duke University Nanovision was reviewed in the Times Higher Education on the 18th December 2008