Dean describes a popular post WWII Shoe box.

Dean's World -Singularity Danger -: "See, the way it worked was, an tube in the box would be turned on, and would bathe the shoes and feet in x-rays, projecting a live image of the feet as they sat in their shoes. Three little viewing holes at the top would allow friends, family members, and store employees to see live x-ray images of your feet as you wiggled them in the shoes so they could see how well they fit.

This was a good example of a cheap technology that got cheaper and more readily available all the time, just as most technologies do. It was also hideously irresponsible; unlike modern fluoroscopes, which generally give you extremely short bursts of tightly controlled x-rays, this was live footage, a constant bombardment of a barely-shielded x-ray tube. I have no idea how many Grays of radiation were absorbed in an average shoe-fitting session, but I imagine most modern radiologists would shudder."

As our science is able to do more nano-tech, and nano-bio-tech, WE WILL MAKE A MISTAKE.

It's as inevitable as losing astronauts in the space program.

I would be scared except I'm still more worried about the poor; and about lousy gov't.