Re: Maybe Nanotechnology isn't such a good thing.
- From: Jim Logajan <JamesL@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:54:20 -0500
"Bob Dobbs" <bobdobbs@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Recent activities in Russia got me thinking. What if they are the
first to build an assembler?
Imagine clouds of assemblers wafting around the stratosphere, each
with GPS devices and programmed to disassemble anything that lies in a
certain area?
They could completely wipe out their enemies, and nobody would be able
to defend themselves.
Many things are possible. But they are not all equally probable. I cannot
rule out such a sequence of things happening, but it seems very highly
improbable.
Strictly from a technical standpoint, not only do they have to invent an
assembler, but it has to:
1) Be able to power itself somehow in the wild. A non-trivial problem right
there. (Solar energy you say - well, if that is the case, sounds like the
buggers would be more useful as power sources than weapons!)
2) Avoid disassembling its assembler pals. Always a good idea to avoid
"friendly disassembly" (equivalent to "friendly fire.")
3) Replicate in the wild - otherwise it is going to take quite some time
for them to disassemble much of anything. More likely their targets are
going to die of old age before they die of being disassembled. (I'd like to
know how many of these things there are to start and how fast they can
disassemble stuff given their likely energy source(s).)
No doubt other objections exist merely on technical grounds. From a
motivational point of view, the "first" assembler is likely to have so many
other uses that the inventors are likely to apply it to other useful
problems first.
.
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