Definitely,

Nanotechnology is the next stage of development for humans. Nanotechnology could enable us to be able to manipulate cells in our bodies to any form we would like, the possibility of staying young and to live forever. Nanobots could be injected into our bloodstream to help our white blood cells fight of diseases, viruses etc.

cjd
Permalink | Report

I do see them being useful in the far future for things like cancer and AIDS, but I don't think they'll receive much usage in common diseases. The reason being, for things like chicken pox, your body builds up an immunity to it by fighting it. Include the nanobots, and you won't build up that resistance (although, if you are going to die from chicken pox, they may use nanobots). Same with many other diseases. When you keep your immune system out of the disease-fighting, your body loses its immunities. With weakened immune systems, humanity would be entirely dependent on nanobots to protect them from things they could have easily dealt with before nanobots.

What all this brings to mind is War of the Worlds, and how the aliens all die because they have no immunities.

So, for your run-of-the-mill diseases, I don't think so. But I can definitely see them being used for more exotic things.
Permalink | Report

This is a tricky question. If we do supplement our body with nanotechnology, others will find a way to counteract them or use them for nefarious purposes.
For example, if we injected nano-bots that healed soldiers in battle, the enemy would invest time and money into synthetic viruses that could change those nano-bots so they destroy the host's tissue, effectively destroying large parts of the opposing army.
Although this is only one example, history shows that more advanced technology tends not to solve the problems that we want them to.
Permalink | Report