Re: No nanotech before AI

From: Emlyn (onetel) (emlyn@one.net.au)
Date: Wed Jul 12 2000 - 23:55:05 MDT


I'm convinced. Big nanotech is coming (in slow measured steps), real soon
now. My question is, as a coder, how do I re-skill to be ready to help meet
the demand for nano-coders? Currently I've got a strong formal education in
compsci, and weaker maths, but my physics/chemistry/etc is poor.

What's my study program?

Emlyn

----- Original Message -----
From: Robert J. Bradbury <bradbury@aeiveos.com>
To: <extropians@extropy.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 5:52 AM
Subject: Re: No nanotech before AI

>
> On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>
> > Another possibility that hasn't been discussed is that nanotech might
> > not be entirely automated! It could be that for anything more
> > complicated than raw diamond, you'll need a group of nanoengineers
> > painstakingly assembling the object and watching for errors, with
> > automation of the process coming later in the game.
>
> Eliezer I think is correct in that you are going to need a slew
> of nanoengineers. If we have diamondoid nanoassembly by 2010
> as Von Err has predicted, then those engineers are entering high
> school around now. I doubt very much that there are thousands
> of young people see themselves on career paths to nanoengineering.
> The few nanoengineers that are produced by a few select schools
> are likely to find themselves in the high-demand positions of the
> software engineers today.
>
> Not to say the software engineers won't have it pretty good as
> well (you gotta program those assemblers, verify the designs and
> automate as much of the process as possible to work around the
> fact that you didn't train enough people during this decade).
>



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