Now!...several things I question.
1...It's easier to destroy than to create. We'll it appears that may be
so...but since nature always takes the path of least resistance
(right?)...then howizzat that life exists in the first place? I submit that
there is an underlaying and contervailing force (uhhhh.....lemme
see....yeah...EXTROPY)...
2. To stave off this terrible menance we gotta have a world police state,
keep it a secret...yabida yabida yabida...(preachers, prophets, dictators and
demagoges of all flavors been saying this forever)...
Several obvious answers to this..."when it's time to Railroad...we GONNA
railroad" (a much mutilated quote from early american history)...in other
words when all the pieces are available...someones gonna put them together...
To stop this we gotta keep it a SECRET...yeah...sure...
In the seventies I was a <shhhhh> CryptoMaintenance Technician for Uncle
Sugar's Air Farce...uh Force.....hadda go thru 6 Crypto locks and two sets of
Armed guards just to get to work...secret...TOP secret...shhhhhh
Now you were saying about PGP?....better than what we had...an anyone can
have it...secret got out...or was circumvented.
NO! We must <forceably supress > those <insert group name>...
yeah right...is working real well in Northern Ireland...The Soviet Uniion did
real well in managing their Police State..etc..etc..etc...I could go on...but
this is one of those memes that so obviously won't work...yet intelligent
people keep coming back to it...amazing.
couple of examples of the difficulties of MAKING it work...
You gonna prohibit DEEP THINKING? Consider what could be done with
intelligence augmentation..and cyberspace....suppose someone decided to
"hibernate" for a few million years <subjective>...(a day..week or month real
time) and mull over the problem of nanotech...how you gonna stop that?
You gonna prohib taking a LONG WALK? Real long...like out among the Comets
in the Ooort Cloud...or farther...if someone goes out there and develops
nanotech...and is pissed cause you run him off...uh-oh.
An I'm still not convinced that self-replicating nano assemblers are gonna be
that easy....or even possible.(yeah...well possible...like a steam powered
airplane...but not practicle).. I could go into the ideas that biological
nano-assemblers exists for a reason...maybe that's the onlly way that works?
Because all the components necessary are gathered together in a neat,
readily available package...fuel, building components...etc. Where as
outside the biological realm this problem get greatly more difficult...sure
atoms are everywhere...but the RIGHT KINDS of atoms? That's why we gotta
process mountains of ore to get a little metal...<Ever been to an open-pit
copper mind? Awesome...<and I don't wann hear about it from you Enviromental
Wackos...shaddap)> By the time the poor little nanoassembler got his act
together the show would be over.
I keep thinking of Neal Stephenson's "Diamond Age" scenario...I think that
nanotech will come via the Matter Compiler route...and soon <a few YEARS ago
a high school science fair in California was won by.....a fully functional
Scanning Tunnelling Microscope <STM>>
Well...that lets a little of the steam out...I had a lot more to say (I
thought)...but I gotta go.
<<<<Computer back into navigational mode...initiate GPS...reel in phone
line...relite Ceegar.>>>>>
EvMick
leaving Ft. Chiswell Va.