"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
> Eugene Leitl wrote,
>
> > Be afraid. Be very, very afraid. If this works, here's something
> > rather compact, with a pure programmable yield and no fission
> > primary. All you need is magic geometry, timing, and a little bit of
> > tritium and deuterium.
>
> Sounds like something for LE and cryonics advocates to worry about.
> Homeless derelicts like me don't sweat this puffery.
> (We understand the meaning of "grateful dead.")
>
Yes, this is one to worry about on the dark side of nanotech. It is
clear
to me that when you can place atoms where you want them in a structure,
it
will be relatively easy to design very small fusion devices that can be
grown from seeds. Plant one of these seeds someplace you want
vaporized,
let it grow (collect atoms it needs from the environment) and then ...
So
far we have kept the lid on things because the isotopes of heavy atoms
needed for fission are hard to collect together, but when, as Eugene
indicates above, all you need is a small starter of isotopes of hydrogen
(plentiful all around and in you), all bets are off.
-Ken
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:16 MDT