Robert Freitas

Robert A. Freitas Jr. is a Senior Research Fellow, one of four researchers, at the nonprofit foundation Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) in Palo Alto, California. He holds a 1974 Bachelor's degree majoring in both physics and psychology from Harvey Mudd College, and a 1978 Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Santa Clara University. He has written more than 150 technical papers, book chapters, or popular articles on a diverse set of scientific, engineering, and legal topics. He co-edited the 1980 NASA feasibility analysis of self-replicating space factories and later authored the first detailed technical design study of a hypothetical medical nanorobot ever published in a refereed medical journal.

Related Topics:
Palo Alto - California - 1974 - Physics - Psychology - 1978 - Juris Doctor - J.D. - 1980 - NASA - Self-replicating - Space - Factories - Nanorobot - Medical - Journal

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In 1977-78 Robert Freitas created the concept Sentience Quotient (SQ) as a way to describe the information processing rate in living organisms or computers. For a discussion see Freitas article "Xenopsychology" linked below, first published in the April 1984 edition of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine

Related Topics:
Robert Freitas - Sentience Quotient - Computers

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Freitas is authoring Nanomedicine, the first multiple-book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of hypothetical molecular nanotechnology and hypothetical medical nanorobotics. Volume I was published in October 1999 by Landes Bioscience while Freitas was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing . He published Volume IIA in October 2003 with Landes Bioscience while serving as a Research Scientist at Zyvex Corp., a nanotechnology company headquartered in Richardson, Texas, during 2000-2004. Freitas is now completing Nanomedicine Volumes IIB and III and is consulting on hypothetical diamond mechanosynthesis and hypothetical molecular assembler design at IMM.

Related Topics:
Nanomedicine - Molecular nanotechnology - 1999 - 2003 - Scientist - Mechanosynthesis - Molecular assembler

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Also in 2004, Robert Freitas and Ralph Merkle coauthored and published Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines, the first survey of the field of physical and hypothetical self-replicating machines ever published. The book is available online in HTML format.

Related Topics:
Robert Freitas - Ralph Merkle

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