Civilization could be facing a big problem in the next few years. Oil could get considerably more expensive soon.

“Peak Oil” is not when we “run out” of oil; it’s simply when our collective ability to extract enough oil is exceeded by our demand for oil.

If corporate and national politics delay admissions of trouble until the signs are unmistakable, or if the Peak Oil camp is even close to right about a peak as early as 2008, then we could have just a few years in which to design and ramp up a new trillion-dollar infrastructure.

The only way to do this without severe economic pain is large-scale, general-purpose, exponential manufacturing. And the only technology that appears to fit the bill is molecular manufacturing of the mechanosynthetic variety.