3 year olds and nanotechnolgy
My 3 year old knows that Daddy can fix anything. (It's pretty much true- I worked for many years as an engineer 
) All it takes is tape or glue. Now you and I know that tape and glue don't really fix anything- they just hold it together for a little while longer. I realized, though, that 3 year olds don't see it that way. They believe it is fixed, and why not?
Imagine if tape or glue could fix anything. I can. The tape or glue of the future will be the raw materials for nanomachines which will analyze the surface material, find the crack or hole, and then consume and tranmogrify the tape or glue into the correct molecular structure to create a permanent repair. Now, I'm not going to say they can will create new elements- just new molecules from the right set of basic materials that maximize the number of common things that can be fixed. You might need a metal tape, a wood tape, a plastic tape, a fabric tape for the old easy chair etc., to simplify (Ha!) the problem.
No more jokes about men and duct tape!
