Nanotech isn't magic. The diamondoid-style nantech that Drexler is proposing
would be excruciatingly sensitive to hard radiation - even one misplaced atom
wll take out the equivalent of a cell; by contrast, cells can generally take
a good number of hits. Biology-style nanotech would share the problems of
current biology. No doubt it could be made more resistant to hard radiation
than current cells, but how much so is unclear.
>The implication of this theory to me is that we should get cracking
>building gravity wave detectors (LIGO and successors) that could spot
>closely orbiting neutron stars in nearby space before the final
>collision.
Absolutely. Actually, since neutron stars are visible, just some very good
telescopes and a thorough cataloging effort might do.