Peaches,
Nanotechnology is an infantile field. Most of the speculation in "Prey" is stuff that can be found on popular websites on the subject.
Most of the material on emergent behavior and genetic algorithms is straight from today's research labs. You can find downloadable programs on the web that simulate flocking behavior etc. and derive it from just a few simple interactive rules. They're actually kinda interesting (at least I think so).
I personally didn't find anything in the book to be objectionable - in the sense that there were no physical laws violated - and nothing seemed overly preposterous to me. Much of the story's science is a review of current work and theoretical speculation from the field of genetic algorithms. Of course, at present these models are all computer simulations - no one has figured out how to put them in nature and that is the fiction part - at least for now, a long time to come, and maybe forever. Though I would bet against the last.
I am though a strong and maybe overly optimistic AI proponent and algorithmic science is one of my main interests and forgive the Vegas reference, my strong-suit (it's what I did in college).
Yeah, there are minor holes. Crichton's strength as a writer is his deft pace. I love text that can be read at warp speed. One can almost sense the influence of movies on Crichton's writing. This seems like a made-for-movie story.
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