Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ucla-cs!zen!ucbcad!ames!umd5!uvaarpa!mcnc!decvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!nuchat!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Engines of Creation: Nanotechnology
Message-ID: <1382@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jan 88 01:39:30 GMT
References: <1315@sugar.UUCP> <4879@well.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 24

In article <4879@well.UUCP>, pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) writes:
> In the referenced message, peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) wrote:
> }real susceptible to radiation... so what happens when a carbon-14 in your
> }little sliding rod state machine decays and your nanomachine "immune system"
> }suddenly forgets that your red blood cells are "friends".

> So, what happens when a carbon-14 in the little sliding rod state machine
> decays is: the other 99 similar state machines performing the same
> calculation outvote it, notice the fault, and call in a repair machine.

I'd feel a lot safer if they self-destructed instead of trying to repair the
damage. The machines have to be self-reproducing anyway. Even so...

> Peter: read the book.

I read a couple of his early papers one of his cohorts was handing out at
an SF convention about 6 years ago. I seem to remember this argument... I'd
like to see the system run for a few years in an isolated orbital station
before I trusted them in my body. I'm probably not going to live so long,
but I hope my children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren are just
as cautious.
-- 
-- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.