Re: Major Technologies

Max M (maxm@maxmcorp.dk)
Mon, 11 Jan 1999 17:03:59 +0100

From: Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net>

>>Eugene Leitl wrote: P.S. You non-believers in the gray goo being
>>dangerous are really scary.

>thanks gene. to not acknowledge the danger would be like the first
>users of microscopes discovering anthrax and concluding that they
>are interesting but couldnt possibly be dangerous, as they are so
>very tiny. spike

There is a strong argument that under the conditions that we now live in, that the biological form is close to optimum. If a simpler nano machine could develop the infinite reproduction loop, it would probably allready have happened. wouldn't it?

If grey goo is simple, shouldnt it happen spontaneous in nature or at least in the complex chemical compounds in living creatures?

>From the evidence available it seems that "life" is the simplest form of
reproducing grey goo, that can function in the atmosphere, and there seem to be some kind of minimal complexity for a system that can reproduce. the simplest system we know of is probably the virus, and even it needs a biological host mechanism to function.

Probably something that has been engineered can be better than what nature has stumbled upon, but we simply don't know how much. Perhaps grey goo is impossible because of complexity factors. I hope so.

This doesnt rule out the development of extremely dangerous viruses of course. Which can equally as dangerous as grey goo from a human perpective.

Probably nonbiological nanofabrication has to take place in controlled enviroments. Just like we living creatures has skin to protect us from the enviroment, an advanced nano facility will exist in a nano-womb. 

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