Re: [Sci.nanotech] Re: Important new paper out from Freitas and Merkle



Tim Tyler <seemysig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Perry E. Metzger wrote:

See: http://www.aspbs.com/ctn/

A Minimal Toolset for Positional Diamond Mechanosynthesis
Freitas, Robert A.; Merkle, Ralph C.
Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, Volume
5, Number 5, May 2008 , pp. 760-861(102)
DOI: 10.1166/jctn.2008.002 [...]
[...]
Although none of this has actually been tested :-(

Naturally.

On the other hand, the complexity of making the tools in question by
non-mechanosynthetic means seems surmountable, so this is a first
proposal that could really go somewhere given enough resources devoted
to it.

The authors themselves point out that at the very least, the
simulations ought to be re-done with more precise computational
chemistry algorithms. That would probably require millions of hours of
computer time, but that much time is no longer an impossible barrier
-- it is just expensive.

Actual nanomachines will be the most complicated objects ever produced
by man. One should not assume that the path to building such things
will be cheap and easy. It takes gargantuan sums of money and armies
of people working very hard to design a new microprocessor, so
we should expect something far more complicated to have higher
barriers, if anything.

--
Perry E. Metzger perry@xxxxxxxxxxxx

.