Generation Z

Birth of a New Generation
Timeline of Generation Z

Physicist Richard Feynman, addressing the annual meeting of the American Physical Society at the California Institute of Technology, proposed how one could write on a small scale, in the space of a mere 125 atoms, the entire 24 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. In essence, on the head of a pin.


Professor Norio Taniguchi, of the Tokyo University of Science, coins the term nano-technology in 19741 to describe semiconductor processes such as thin film deposition and ion beam milling exhibiting characteristic control on the order of a nanometer.


K. Eric Drexler, originates the concept of molecular nanotechnology at MIT.


K. Eric Drexler, publishes the first paper to address molecular engineering to build with atomic precision.

STM, Scanning tunneling microscope is invented.


Buckminsterfullerene, aka buckyballs, are discovered. A spherical fullerene molecule with the formula C60. It has a cage-like fused-ring structure (truncated icosahedron) which resembles a football, made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, with a carbon atom at each vertex of each polygon and a bond along each polygon edge. Buckminsterfullerene is the most commonly naturally occurring fullerene molecule, as it can be found in small quantities in soot. Solid and gaseous forms of the molecule have been detected in deep space.


DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, initiates research projects to delivery weaponized nanotechnology.

Later that year, an intrepid engineering contractor develops a technique to suspend weaponized nanotech in a buckyball, where it will remain dormant until activated. Longevity tests follow to generate reliable efficacy results for possible future deployment.


First proteins engineered using nanotechnology.


First University course offered for the burgeoning field of nanotechnology.


The IBM logo is spelled in individual atoms utilizing nanotechnology.

DARPA discovers Carbon Nanotubes.


Japan’s Science and Technology Agency begins funding nanotechnology projects.


Carbon Nanotubes officially discovered.

DARPA incorporates the carbon nanotube discovery into their weaponization research. A live test of the weapon, names N0-N0, is launched against targets in southern Iraq. Unbeknownst to the project personnel, an enlisted munitions airman drops the weapon a few inches during the loading of the weapon aboard an F-117 stealth aircraft. A micro fissure develops in the warhead casing. During flight, atmospheric pressure drops enough to cause the fissure to rupture, releasing the contents of the weapon into the bay of the aircraft. As intended, the nanoprobes seek and find the only organic target on the plane, and liquify him. The aircraft breaks up due to entering an uncontrolled flight status. The planes wreckage, along with the millions of nanos, is distributed into the fire heated, smoke filled skies over southern Iraq. With ample carbon resource to build with, the nanos begin to build more until DARPA sends the kill command. Trillions of deactivated nanos rain down on advancing Allied forces during the invasion of Iraq.
The project suffers a setback when the project’s director is found dead of an apparent suicide.


Gulf War Syndrome makes headlines, as 250,000 of the 697,000 veterans deployed to the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War develop a previously unknown, symptomatically diverse disorders without any obvious source or cause.

DARPA nanoweapons developers discover that the N0-N0 nanorobots are in very nearly every soldier so diagnosed. The decision is made to observe and research the long term effects.


First Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for modeling a hydrogen abstraction tool useful in nanotechnology.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, releases a report entitled “Science and Technology: A Report of the President,” included coverage of molecular nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing.


The US Science Adviser advocates for US research in nanotechnology.


First think tank report.

First (official) industry analysis of military applications.

Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology awarded for synthesis of complex three-dimensional structures with DNA molecules.

Soldiers afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome, starting this year and continuing through 2005, begin to show more and great debilitating effects of the illness. DARPA secretly monitors.


$250,000 Feynman Grand Prize announced. The first European conference. NASA begins work in computational nanotech. The first nanobio conference.


First design of nanorobotic system.


First company founded: Zomvex


First DNA-based nanomechanical device.


DARPA develops NMA-21. Nicknames Nema, the agent, composed of nanorobots suspended in nanotubes which also contain basic material atoms for fabrication of nano-nodes, attaches to the brain stem to allow the target so injected to be selectively incapacitated, immobilized or terminated. Project developers hope to fine tune the ability to allow remote control of infected targets.


First Nanomedicine book published.

First safety guidelines.

Congressional hearings on proposed National Nanotechnology Initiative. During the session, the Director of the CIA George Tenet inadvertently mentions Nema. No one on the committee notices, but the NSA begins limited surveillance of the committee members to ensure that they remain unaware.


Weaponized nanotech developed by DARPA is leaked to the Chinese during back door dealings with the Clinton Administration. In addition to details for the manufacture of high speed, one piece screws for attack submarines, an early formula for NMA-9 is accidentally included.


President Clinton announces U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative.

First state research initiative: $100 million in California



First report on nanotech industry.

U.S. announces first center for military applications. In rapid succession, DARPA produces a number of impressive technologies, that have set on shelves in under hyper secret clearance. The military/industrial complex is sated with the benefits of a decade of previously unknown research, and military applications find immediate use in the War on Terror late in the year.



First nanotech industry conference.

Regional nanotech efforts multiply.



Congressional hearings on societal implications.

Drexler/Smalley debate is published in Chemical & Engineering News. A public dispute between K. Eric Drexler, founder of the field of molecular nanotechnology, and Richard Smalley, a recipient of the 1996 Nobel prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the nanomaterial buckminsterfullerene. The dispute was about the feasibility of constructing molecular assemblers, which are molecular machines which could robotically assemble molecular materials and devices by manipulating individual atoms or molecules. The concept of molecular assemblers was central to Drexler’s conception of molecular nanotechnology, but Smalley argued that fundamental physical principles would prevent them from ever being possible.



First policy conference on advanced nanotech.



At Nanoethics meeting, Roco announces nanomachine/nanosystem project count has reached 300. Via DARPA research projects, the official number is much, much higher.



National Academies nanotechnology report calls for experimentation toward molecular manufacturing.


Chinese scientists, attempting to backwards engineer the earlier stages of the NMA nanos, accidently generate the N0-N0 machine. The facility is immolated with a sub-nuclear level thermobaric explosive device, but the research facility is totally destroyed, with 100% loss of life. The Chinese government decides that the weapon is too dangerous to research. Efforts are begun to find out how far along the US research effort is, and to find a way to stop it.


Chinese N0-N0 nanites travel airborne in the jet stream being deposited globally all along its path. While few have survived the destruction of the Chinese research facility, the damaged nanos which are now released, and provided with raw material, they begin to self replicate.



DARPA begins to identify isolated outbreaks N0-N0 activity. Mostly in afflicted Gulf War vets. Though no longer liquifying their targets, the effects typically end tragically for the victim.



Structural DNA nanotechnology arrays devices to capture molecular building blocks.


Organizing functional components on addressable DNA scaffolds.


It is discovered by DARPA that the N0-N0 nanos are incorporating upgrades discovered in other common use nanotech as they encounter it. They appear to be able to relay these upgrades to each other, but DARPA is unable to identify the mechanism by which they do so.

The Chinese confront President Obama during his November visit to the PRC. As he is unaware of the program, he can provide no adequate response that the Chinese can accept. Sino-American Relations suffer, and are compounded further early in the next year when Obama meets with the Dalai Lama.


DARPA is able to neutralize the rogue N0-N0 nanos with the Gulf War I code, but lack enough reach to affect the entire United States. Plans are implemented to extend the reach.

DNA-based ‘robotic’ assembly begins.



DARPA issues a global disable command under the guise of the national EAS test on November 9, 2011, at 2 pm Eastern Standard Time. Somehow, the nanos have learned that the effect exists within themselves and have modified themselves to prevent destruction. However, it does disable their ability to create more of themselves. It is too late to stop what is coming, because after five years of replication, there is not a single living creature on the Earth that hasn’t been infected with the modified, mostly non-aggressive N0-N0 strain nanorobots.

Across the globe, nanotechnology researchers are starting to ask questions, since all of their research is also affected.

Chinese military hackers discover the nano termination line code in the EAS broadcast.


DARPA finally unlocks the mechanism by which the NMA nanotechnology can be used to give remote control of humans. Tests are conducted on cadavers to determine efficacy. N0-N0 immediately incorporates this improvement.


The Chinese hack the US national EAS system and issue a modified form of the code to test its effectiveness before unleashing it on their own population.

Generation Z arrives….

