Re: Flaws in Drexler's vision


On a dark an' dismal Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:49:58 -0000, in flickering =
lamplight, Tim Tyler
<seemysig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> scribed with phoenix qill :

<<#>>
To give a modern example, look at the "Productive Nanosystems"
video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3D-2022170440316254003

I have just gotten around to see it.

It looks a *lot* like a scaled-down macroscopic factory.

Not only that, it also sounds like one, i half expected a whistle=20
for tea break :-)

There are various delightfully naive bits - like where a
diamond cube is made by mechanically placing carbon atoms
together - without mentioning that if you actually try
doing that, positional uncertainties result in the
adjacent carbon atoms tending to join together in stable
graphite patterns on the surface - unless you load the
surface with (e.g.) hydrogen atoms to prevent surface
bonds from forming - and then rip these off when
applying the carbon atoms - e.g. see:

You do expect too much from an advert, I'm sorry, but it's true.
This is still artists' impression, just in a different medium.=20
CGI instead of paper and ink, but the vision is still in the artists=20
inner eye.
I myself would want to know what atoms the machine itself=20
was made off, eventually. (They seem not to show as molecules.)
I would just treat this as a concept, and personally i doubt=20
the real 'atomic fabricator' will work like it, when it finally=20
gets created.=20
Sadly most people today don't seem to worry about=20
the how it works, it could be magic to them, they just=20
care that it does work.

Mike


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