What Nanotech will eventually become: We see already the amazing things Nano is doing for our current technology. Stronger materials - custom made  materials , everything promises to be stronger and more integrated But what of the actual tech itself? Will we forever be scavenging atoms from other things to make our own things? Nay I say. Once 1st gen Nanotech is in the bag  we'll find out that materialising the things we want will be a bit of a pain on the large scale due to the fact that we will be needing to grab atoms from other things to generate our new things. Ideas like all purpose nanopaste  have been thrown around but really I don't feel like have tubes of the stuff connected / associated with everything Nano does. Besides, what about mega-engineering? We'll never pull off a Dyson shell with toothpaste.   No the solution is this: As our understanding of the atom and all things quantum increases we will ,I absolutely believe we will be able to edit the contents of  the nucleus. That will enable us to turn the most common element - Hydrogen into any other element that we want. First gen Nanotech will then be able to piece together the whole atoms. But why stop there? Mere transmutation of  the elements is petty cash compared to this. Understanding of the sort of ideas that string theory puts forward will enable us to take any form of energy ,be it sound ,light ,heat ,cosmic rays ,x-rays or microwaves and turn it into  physical matter. Matter, we will find is just part of the electromagnetic spectrum and we will plant it firmly in the map of the spectrum just beyond where cosmic rays sit (The ones with the really tiny  wavelength) Yes this does imply a single fundamental building block of the atom that all other components of atoms are made of. Something that when we try and break down more ,we get only energy and no matter. Well what's this infinitesimal spec called? I'm sure someone has  already got a name for it ,oh wait isn't that what "atom" means? Hmmm ,how about the Atomile? Atomette? A Singlon? who knows.... Ok so now we can create matter out of any form of energy. With this sort of thing going we  should be able to pull off man-made fusion (cold fusion is just awful) and that will continue to fuel our matter making. Loads of people ask why. Why do we bother. Its because this level of tech is what I believe is the  technological pillar of a self-sustaining civilisation. A civ that will be able to colonise the universe with ease ,make our own worlds even custom design our own stars. I'll leave off here. Once this level of technology has been  reached the future has been written about in books like Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. They all give hints as to what you can do and how much fun you can have. I've got dibs on the Rustlers orbital. Named after Rustlers valley in South Africa. Or maybe I'll just make a Rustlers Moon. I'm sure I can find some people who would want to live there :) Enjoy.   P.S. The society of this self-sustaining civilisation will have to be some kind of Anarcho-socio model since no power structures need to exist when  you can program your Nanotech to be the providing base for all humankind.