Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: cphoenix@csli.Stanford.EDU (Chris Phoenix) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: The Compendium of Nanomachines Message-ID: Date: 26 Aug 89 00:46:28 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 29 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article tim@toad.com (Tim Maroney) writes: >Wouldn't it be even neater to have even a single nanomachine which was >designed in detail? I could come up with a million ideas for >nanomachines, but without some proof of concept, what's the point? There are two problems with utilizing the full potential of nanomachines. One, of course, is designing them. As soon as we have nanocomputers, even Drexler's mechanical ones, this will be orders of magnitude easier than it is now. And we have Drexler's plans already. The other problem is in thinking of things to do with them. Nanotechnology will put literally unimaginable power within our reach. Obviously problems like power supply can't be ignored, but if we want to get the full use of nanomachines, we have to know how we want to use them. This is very non- trivial. I hate to deprecate the ideas I've heard so far, but I doubt most of them should actually be built for the simple reason that there's better things to build. We need to spend some energy figuring out what they are. -- 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. [Don't hold your breath. Nanotechnology will let us remake the human race into whatever form we please, and accomplish almost any imaginable lesser goal. You would basically need to know the Ultimate Purpose of the Universe to decide what to do with that potentiality. I have a simpler goal, or rather a direction: let's get more intelligent and learn to understand the knowledge we already have, and maybe we'll have a leg up on taking the *next* step in the right direction. --JoSH]