Re: Long term nuclear waste disposal (was: The Year 2038 Problem)

From: Programmer Dude (Chris_at_Sonnack.com)
Date: 06/30/04 

Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2004 23:57:26 -0500

Thomas G. Marshall writes:

>>> 3. Nanobot assemblers turning us all into the "gray goo".
>>
>> ...Surface tension is formidable at that scale!
>
>
> Yeah, but the surface tension is actually exploited by the little
> critters, particularly for locomotion.

Sorry, I was being sloppy. What I was referring to is:

> 2. Sticky Fingers: The fingers themselves being made of atoms would
> continually want to bond with surrounding atoms.

That. Just couldn't think of the terminology.

There is also:

> 1. Fat Fingers: The physical aperatus that would actually need to grab
> small numbers of atoms would itself be made of a larger number of atoms.

Not atoms. Really, really large molecules, perhaps, but I doubt we'll
ever have machines down at the atomic level (in part for the Fat Fingers
aspect, but QM starts playing a role at that level, too).

There are also energy considerations.

There are "engineering problems" and "impossible problems". Examples,
we always knew you could break the sound barrier--the tip of a whip does
it. Solving that was just an engineering problem. The speed of light,
as far as we understand the universe, is an "impossible problem".

Solving it will require re-writing our understanding of reality.

Nanobots.... seem close to the boundary to me. They may be just an
engineering problem... or there may be aspects that make it impossible.

If we DO solve it, the code programs, for example, will probably have to
be molecule size (like DNA), and mechanics may be more biology than
machine. Which makes it like a virus or bacterium.

Which brings us back to, if it's *possible* for a small machine to
self-replicate to the extinction of all else... why hasn't it already
happened? Luck?

> Well, it'd have to be pretty rugged to deal with large deposits of
> non-organic compounds like, oh, a rock of Iron and Silicon.

Organic critters exist that eat these things.

> But your point should be read in a larger sense: Perhaps if it was
> possible for such things to occur, it would have happened already in
> nature.

Exactly what I'm saying.

> I'm not sure I buy it: There are many things that haven't occured in
> nature by itself.

Such as?

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Long term nuclear waste disposal (was: The Year 2038 Problem)
    ... but the surface tension is actually exploited by the little ... > small numbers of atoms would itself be made of a larger number of atoms. ... Organic critters exist that eat these things. ... > nature by itself. ...
    (comp.unix.misc)
  • Re: Long term nuclear waste disposal (was: The Year 2038 Problem)
    ... but the surface tension is actually exploited by the little ... > small numbers of atoms would itself be made of a larger number of atoms. ... Organic critters exist that eat these things. ... > nature by itself. ...
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    ... but the surface tension is actually exploited by the little ... >>small numbers of atoms would itself be made of a larger number of atoms. ... Say you want to travel from one side of the balloon to a point on the ... > Organic critters exist that eat these things. ...
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  • Re: Long term nuclear waste disposal (was: The Year 2038 Problem)
    ... but the surface tension is actually exploited by the little ... >>small numbers of atoms would itself be made of a larger number of atoms. ... Say you want to travel from one side of the balloon to a point on the ... > Organic critters exist that eat these things. ...
    (comp.unix.misc)