The Future: Core Precepts in Supramolecular Method and Nanochemistry

Book excerpt: The book is an invitation to a chemical revolution, one that lifts us towards the positive Anthropocene, leaving behind the sick killing and dying days of the negative Anthropocene so neatly identified in 1940 by Charlie Chaplin at the conclusion of The Great Dictator: “Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.” For those familiar with Lonergan’s book, Method in Theology, The Future aims at a new, creative reading. The author’s central message is to focus on theology ASAFACT—to come to our senses and ASsemble our AFfirmed ACTing to change history. Assembly includes self-assembly, an assembly of a piece of a lonely cosmic chemistry, a supermolecule whose reality in history is weaved round a complex W-enzyme.