I can't get over the fact he basically invents a DLP-like spatial light modulator in a thought experiment 15 years before the real thing, but then immediately dismisses it as useless. That's nuts!
Or maybe it was sarcasm that didn't make it through to the transcript?
"You get this little machine you can control
from the outside, and it has a sword. The machine
gets in the water with a paramecium, and you try to stab
it" 35 years after this statement these nano devices still do not exist even in laboratory settings. What has gone wrong? What is preventing this?