Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!rex!ukma!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Hardware Error Checking Message-ID: Date: 26 Mar 91 23:20:06 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: NCI Supercomputer Facility, Frederick, MD Lines: 36 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu >In article > cphoenix@csli.stanford.edu (Chris Phoenix) writes: >Picture the following nanomachine, designed to prevent mutation: Natural radiation, radioactive isotope decay and thermal noise will always cause you problems at some rate. Checking against multiple copies is not the best solution, the best one is the encoding method: >I keep reading all these postings of people afraid of nanomachine replicators >getting out of hand, and I keep expecting one of the replies to have >the solution suggested by Ralph Merkle (didn't I read it here?). Since >nobody else seems to remember it, I'll submit it: Encrypt the genes of >your nanomachine replicators. > Mike Higgins > mike@everexn.com Encripting (encoding) the entire genome is an elegant solution. The originator should write a paper on it and publish it. Shannon's theorem shows that one can make the errors as low as you may desire. Read: @article{Shannon1949, author = "C. E. Shannon", title = "Communication in the Presence of Noise", year = "1949", journal = "Proc. IRE", volume = "37", pages = "10-21"} and the papers I mentioned before. Tom Schneider National Cancer Institute Laboratory of Mathematical Biology Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201 toms@ncifcrf.gov