Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!apple!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: landman@sun.com (Howard A. Landman x61391) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Nanotechnology reference Keywords: nanotechnology "Evolution" STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Message-ID: Date: 11 Oct 89 00:41:44 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 38 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes: >The nanotechnology described in "Evolution" (the third season premier >of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION is, um, real speculative science. >[I for one have never heard or read "nannites". Leafing through > EOC, one sees the term "assembler" used fairly consistently. > I didn't the episode referred to. Would anyone care to summarize? > --JoSH] Approximately: Ensign Wesley Crusher falls asleep while pulling an all-nighter working on his lab assignment for nanotechnology class. The project involves getting the nanites to communicate and cooperate (genetic algorithms?). Two of them escape (hasn't the federation thought of containment facilities yet?). They begin eating the Enterprise main computer memory for raw materials. Various utterly unbelievable computer malfunctions ensue (I guess the Fed *still* haven't figured out fault-tolerant computing). The nanites use the raw materials to reproduce. Their colony develops an intelligence. A physicist kills part of the colony and the rest of the nanites go for revenge. Picard is about to order radiation sterilization of the memory cores whan Data is able to make contact with the nanites. Eventually they agree to fix the memory if they get a planet to themselves. All in all, not too awful. The general level of scientific content in the ST:TNG scripts has been far higher than in the original ST. This episode is one example; another episode they discussed modifying the transporter biofilter to try to cure Dr. Pulaski of a nasty virus-like condition. Another episode featured the Borg, who are cyborgs, and whose ships can heal themselves (although they look like one of those cubes that comes out of an automobile compacter). Of course, it's not Nova or The Day The Universe Changed; but it's not Space:1999 either ... Howard A. Landman landman@eng.sun.com