A personal nanofactory is soon to be real system in which nanomachines combine molecules to build larger atomically precise parts. These, in turn, would be assembled by positioning mechanisms of assorted sizes to build macroscopic (visible) but still atomically-precise products. A functioning nanofactory could create virtually any product at the cost of only the input raw material and energy. Here's the video...
A personal nanofactory is a device on the drawingboard that can be used for molecular manufacturing by individuals rather than manufacturing concerns. The essence of the workings of a personal nanofactory is that it will have the ability to build essentially anything from the bottom up, molecule-by-molecule. A personal nanofactory has often been described as a small, desktop device that each of us can use to make whatever we desire.
Such a device which reduces the cost of things to the cost of the software program to instruct the personal nanofactory exactly how and where to place the molecular parts - to just the cost of the information - could have widespread economic consequences. Since the dawn of mankind, our economics have operated from a position of scarcity - and a personal nanofactory in the hands of humans across the globe could turn this paradigm upside down - to an economics of abundance.; Currently, there are people - especially a Robert A. Freitas Jr. - that are confronting this issue. The essence of his work in this area is that the deflationary forces resulting from mass availability of desktop personal nanofactories can be opposed by inflationary forces competently initiated by governmental monetary authorities.
The expected era of personal nanofactories will bring us cheap products which are lightweight, durable, and most probably with embedded intelligence. I read somewhere that just as Apple enabled personal publishing by marrying the Postscript language with the Macintosh interface and an inexpensive LaserWriter printer, so will the coupling of molecular manufacturing with appropriate programming tools bring about a revolution we might call "personal manufacturing."
Just imagine that if you wanted a new computer, you would download the intelligence program (thereby paying for the item) to a copyright holder (or the government) and have the personal nanofactory produce the item in minutes. It now appears that even food could eventually be manufactured on a personal nanofactory at practically no cost of materials. This kind of technology is expected to be very disruptive - economically, socially, politically, and philosophically.
That's why you need to bookmark this website and come back often, because estimates of this kind of technology being available run from 10 years to 30 years or so - within the lifetimes of most of us now living. Welcome to one of the most promising (and dangerous) technologies which is being put in the hands of mankind - nanotechnology in the form of molecular manufacturing with personal nanofactories.