Some proponents of nanorobotics, in reaction
to the grey goo scare scenarios that they earlier
helped to propagate, hold the view that nanorobots
capable of replication outside of a restricted factory
environment do not form a necessary part of a
purported productive nanotechnology, and that the
process of self-replication, if it were ever to be
developed, could be made inherently safe. They
further assert that free-foraging replicators are in fact
absent from their current plans for developing and
using molecular manufacturing.