Alternative Models for Managing Self-Replicating Nanotechnology

IntelRep would be a treaty-based nongovernmental organization. Every country could have an ownership stake in it. Some countries could decide that they would appoint a private company, like we used to have Comsat here in the United States, to be its representative.

Labs should be set up in both Asian, American, and Euro-African land masses so there could actually be competitive juices flowing at the different labs within IntelRep. The labs would be set up to compete with each other, so that we could move the technology forward as much as possible, all under the IntelRep umbrella. The competencies of this international organization would be to develop best NMT practices, which is what the Foresight guidelines are mostly about. Another goal would be to partake in global NMT inspections, which is another point in the Foresight Institute guidelines.

The Foresight Institute guidelines are not necessarily opposed to self-replicating technology as long as it is done within a controlled environment and by a responsible party. IntelRep would obviously be a responsible, ethical party, having been formed by a treaty of all these countries. Fail/safe controls would develop as would sales applications, much like today the Intelsat organization sells its communications satellite services to satellite organizations in each county, which then resells them to users.

The member-level functionality (each country or a company or group of companies within each country) would receive a nominal share just by signing up to the treaty organizations, but they can buy more. For example, a country like the U.S. would form an organization that could buy 20-30% of IntelRep because it would see that there could be huge revenues and profits coming from this organization. Every country would get at least a nominal share.

The members would enforce IntelRep domestically, providing training opportunities. This is a great way to enable every country in the world to send people to IntelRep to get training and begin to diffuse molecular nanotechnology worldwide and receive a return on investment from self-replication product sales.

Where to Begin
To launch the treaty, I recommend that the leading MNT firms and NGOs like CRN (the Center for Cognitive Liberty), WTA and the Extropy Institute co-draft a straw man treaty, and it sounds like some work has already been done that way at Arizona State University. The straw man treaty would need to be blessed by local governments, then opened to ratification and entered into a force with a few signatures. As soon as some other countries see that the U.S., Britain, and China are signing up to this treaty, I think you will see every other country signing up to it right away. The Intelsat Treaty, which again, is somewhat similar, has virtually every country in the world signed up for it and buying their share of that organization. Then the members could commence work right away and continually court all states with the goal of having every country in the world a member of IntelRep.

The sales pitch would be that membership is free, you get a chance to help shape MNT replication policies, you get high-level training opportunities for people, perhaps competitive labs located in your jurisdiction, access to the benefits for your country, and a revenue opportunity for a return on the investment.