From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sat May 10 2003 - 15:06:00 MDT
On Sat, May 10, 2003 at 10:53:39AM -0700, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> <blinks> You're just discovering that site now? I've been
> following
> http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/periodictable.html since
> the start.
I have followed it too, but today I noticed the relevance of
the Holmium entry. I loved the description of the Ytterby
festivities too - I wish they were true.
> > All humor aside, nanotech molecules are small enough to
> > go through rubber gloves, face masks and even skin in
> > many cases. Most people who discuss/predict
> > nanotechnology don't realize that nano materials will
> > probably be extremely dangerous biohazards.
>
> Actually, I would suspect this would not be the case.
> Nanotech molecules, especially the early versions, will
> probably be on the large side, and thus easily blockable by
> rubber gloves, face masks, and even skin.
The issue is rather whether they might be hazardous to
breathe in. Asbestos becomes dangerous because the grains
have a size causing macrophages in the lung to overeat and
die, and similarly nanodevices might have nasty effects just
due to size or indigestibility constraints.
None of these problems are showstoppers, and I think ETC are
grasping at straws in creating FUD about nanotech. None of
the approaches to nanotech right now seem to be likely to
produce free flying stuff, and it is unlikely anybody would
start releasing nanodevices into the environment without
testing them. The FUD approach is to suggest that these
things *could* happen, and hence horrible dangers could occur
and must be prevented from the start. A realistic approach is
to set up safety guidelines based on past experience and
plausible extrapolations. But who screams higher?
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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