When people think of the future of nanotechnology, so many people imagine tiny robots like the one to the left. This future differs greatly from that of research scientists such as Dr. El-Sayed and Dr. Mihail Roco, the senor advisory to the National Science Foundation on Nanotechnology. Dr. Roco predicts that nanotechnology will be used in four stages, the first of which, materials, we have already surpassed. (Though some people still find this form of the technology a threat, as seen on Against.) The next stages though have nothing to do with tiny robots; rather, he suggests that nanotechnology will be used to improve implants, tissue restructuring and perhaps artificial organs; then, after about 2015, nanotechnology will be used to extend acceptable environment ranges in biological systems, as well as smaller general technologies, and even greater precision in medical procedures, suggesting gene therapy, anti-aging treatments, and highly advanced human-electronic interfacing. With research already directed according to these stages, his prediction seems likely; the advancement of 'gray goo,' the ecotrophic nanorobots of Engines of Creation, and fears of nanotech protesters, does not.