We're all gonna become Hortas

I don't know about you, but I'm getting worn down by the daily revelations of fresh existential threats. What with Bushism, terrorist designs, global warming, bird flu, rogue comets and meteors and I don't know what-all, the zaps to my amygdala risk rendering me into a single, twitching nerve-end.

The latest threat truly deserves the description of "existential".

Dr. Alan H. Goldstein has a lengthy and densely-written piece in Salon that raises the alarm on advancing research in nanotechnology or, as he puts it, "nanobiobots". This refers to the various technologies that seek to create devices--or hybrid-synthetic organisms, or something--that can be inserted into the body to interface with our cells on the molecular level for therapeutic purposes. He writes:

In order to understand the astonishing leap we are about to make, one needs to grasp that nanobiotechnology is more than just another tool. It is also a monumental experiment in molecular evolution over which we may ultimately have very little control.

I cannot even begin to paraphrase or summarize Dr. Goldstein's arguments or the dangers he outlines. You'll just have to read it. All I can say is that if he is even partially correct, we're all gonna become Hortas, and we'll be hatching Pet Rocks for children.

I've got a headache. Where's Bones McCoy when I need him?