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From: leech@unc.cs.unc.edu (Jonathan Leech)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Bioproduced nanocomputers
Message-ID: <1828@unc.cs.unc.edu>
Date: Fri, 30-Oct-87 12:23:16 EST
Article-I.D.: unc.1828
Posted: Fri Oct 30 12:23:16 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Nov-87 04:44:37 EST
References: <8710290154.AA09880@agent99.wedge.com>
Reply-To: leech@unc.UUCP (Jonathan Leech)
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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In article <8710290154.AA09880@agent99.wedge.com> nickyt@agent99.UUCP (Nick Turner) writes:
>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?

    People who have read _Engines_of_Creation_ will remember that
Drexler made numerous predictions of fantastic things we could do with
nanotechnology (NT): life extension, interactive design systems
oreders of magnitude more productive than today, nanocomputers, etc,
etc. The problem I have with this idea is that while NT is probably
feasible, it is simply an enabling technology, not a magic panacea.
For example, life extension requires that we understand deeply how
aging affects the body. NT will help researchers, but it won't
suddenly make them so much smarter that they understand in detail how
life 'works'. And the additional precautions needed to work with NT
will slow things down remarkably (ordinary viruses are bad enough;
imagine sophisticated AI systems gone wild in your body ala Greg
Bear's _Blood_Music_!) I feel that Drexler's envisioned explosion of
NT remaking the world suddenly is simply not going to happen. An
analogy is the old 'nuclear power too cheap to meter' idea. Comments?
-- 
    Jon Leech (leech@cs.unc.edu)    __@/
"The idea of ``picking up where Apollo left off'' in lunar exploration
is a chimera. There is nothing to pick up; when we dropped it, it broke."
    John & Ruth Lewis in 'Space Resources: Breaking the Bonds of Earth'