Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!agent99.UUCP!nickyt
From: nickyt@agent99.UUCP (Nick Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Bioproduced nanocomputers
Message-ID: <8710290154.AA09880@agent99.wedge.com>
Date: Wed, 28-Oct-87 20:54:04 EST
Article-I.D.: agent99.8710290154.AA09880
Posted: Wed Oct 28 20:54:04 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Nov-87 05:46:26 EST
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 29

Thanks, Mike Scholtes, for helping to revive the group.

I think biologically produced nanocomputers might be do-able, but the
likelihood is that there will be far more efficient ways to build them.  The
kinds of nanocomputers that might be produced in living cells are bound to be
far more limited than the ones we'll be able to make with general purpose
nanomachines that are specially designed to handle all sorts of types of atoms
and atomic clusters.

I refer all of you who are interested in nanotechnology to Eric Drexler's
masterpiece called "Engines of Creation."  It is >the< book to read on the
topic, and it just came out in paperback.  Sorry I don't have pub info on
hand right now.

I recall one image that might be worth some discussion.  In the book Drexler
describes a system where rocket engines (and virtually anything else you
could imagine) would be grown in vats.  One "seed" machine the size of a very
large virus is dropped into the nutrient mixture, and it in turn assembles
machines that then assemble other machines, and so on, until eventually this
wondrously detailed macroscopic structure begins to emerge.  The potential
kinds of things we could build with such a system are unlimited.

If you could design such a system, how would you make it work?  What sorts of
stuff would you build/grow?  What kinds of atoms and molecules would you use
in your structures?  How would the nutrients be circulated?  How would you deal
with the inevitable waste products?  How would you supply energy to the nano-
machinery?  These are important questions.  Any ideas out there?

NickyT