Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: cphoenix@csli.Stanford.EDU (Chris Phoenix) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Utility Fog Message-ID: Date: 23 Aug 89 18:36:28 GMT Lines: 31 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article JoSH writes: > ... My favorite scheme involves replacing grass with a nanoengineered > replacement that stores and transmits solar energy (but still looks > like grass). Power could be transmitted to anywhere it's needed by > dynamically created pathways trough the Fog. Wouldn't it be easier, and cause a lot less screaming among the Luddites, to just design something that could grow *inside* the grass? Replacing the grass entirely would cause several problems: It would be inedible, it wouldn't have the root system (unless you designed that too) so the ground under it would erode or leach, ... Nanotech is great, but we might want to think about working with the systems already in place rather than replacing them. I'm not sure if the argument holds in this case, but if nanotech viruses and gragu won't be too much worse than evolution could come up with, then probably nanotech grass won't be too much better. Why not save ourselves the hassle? -- Chris Phoenix | I'm a paranoid schizophrenic! I'm after me! cphoenix@csli.Stanford.EDU | "More input! More input!" For every idiot-proof system, a new improved idiot will arise to overcome it. Disclaimer: I want a kinder, gentler net with a thousand pints of lite. [The root system constitute the power grid to collect the energy generated by the leaves. It could be designed not only to prevent but reverse erosion. You might want your lawn to be inedible, and plant something different in the cow pasture. Nanograss could thrive in areas where biograss does not, i.e. deserts. But primarily, I'm assuming that low level infestations of gray goo will do serious harm to most of the earth's biological inventory in the next century, and it will simply be necessary to replace it. --JoSH]