PHYSICS: Re: Re: Is anyone interested in immortality for all?

Anthony Garcia (agarcia@Starbase.NeoSoft.COM)
Fri, 5 Mar 1999 03:41:49 -0600 (CST)

"Gina Miller" <echoz@hotmail.com> writes:

     Damien, How do you purpose to "tweak" the universe without
     delving into the nanoscale? Do you know what nanotechnology is
     comprised of?

Do *you* know what nanotechnology is? You advertise yourself as a nanotechnology enthusiast, so I'm surprised at your apparent confusion here.

Your very own webpage states:

DEFINITION of NANOTECHNOLOGY: Technology based on the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules to build structures to complex, atomic specifications, by means of mechanosynthesis.

Now, Damien is discussing imaginary, hypothetical techniques for moving entire galaxies around and changing the shape of space and time. Neither he nor I nor anyone on Earth has much of an idea as to how this might be practically accomplished. But this much is sure: such activites would require *really*, *really*, *REALLY* LARGE amounts of energy and would be carried out over *really*, *really*, *REALLY* LARGE volumes of space, and upon *really*, *really*, *REALLY* LARGE quantities of matter.

This puts it at the complete far opposite end of physical scale from nano-scale mechanosynthesis. For an example, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is roughly 9,450,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 nanometers across. It has approximately 200,000,000,000 stars in it. Our own Sun contains roughly 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms.

Nanotechnology operates on matter one atom or molecule at a time. It's, um, *very highly unlikely*, that nanomechanical techniques will ever be used for acting upon objects at the galactic scale.

Hope this helps,
-Anthony

Disclaimer: I'm a software mechanick, not an astrophysicist. I cranked out these figures on a Postit based on constants published on various websites. If anyone notices hideous errors in these figures, let me know, since I am curious as to what they accurately are.