Comments on: Scaling up from atomic assembly and individual nanodevices to macroscopic systems http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359 examining transformative technology Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:23:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: willis http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989939 willis Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:56:10 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989939 A more likely scenario flash is that the federal government will declare the development of nanotechnology to be too important to leave to a free market that will over price its products to cheat helpless consumers (think medicine). It will then seize control over the entire process with a 2,000 page law, and use the occassion to create hundreds of new agencies, with huge budgets adequate to create political fiefdoms, contracts for the most avid supporters in home districts, and endless reams of regulations to be written, interpreted, contested, litigated, etc. by armies of attorneys and accountants. Everybody wins! A more likely scenario flash is that the federal government will declare the development of nanotechnology to be too important to leave to a free market that will over price its products to cheat helpless consumers (think medicine). It will then seize control over the entire process with a 2,000 page law, and use the occassion to create hundreds of new agencies, with huge budgets adequate to create political fiefdoms, contracts for the most avid supporters in home districts, and endless reams of regulations to be written, interpreted, contested, litigated, etc. by armies of attorneys and accountants. Everybody wins!

]]> By: An Observation http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989801 An Observation Sat, 29 Jan 2011 00:32:22 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989801 In nature nothing exists in size between individual molecules and the smallest viron. There is a reason for this. If you look at things at the nano scale air molecules look like bowling balls moving at a kilometer a second. These have a tremendous impact on things at small scale and break them up. It requires either very strong molecular forces or a large enough mass to keep these impacts from destroying what you are trying to build. As a result you can build things in a high vacuum in that 'forbidden' size zone, but as soon as you expose them to the air they are destroyed. The upside to that is that it basically ends the possibility of a 'grey goo' of nano replicators destroying life on earth. The down side is that many potentially useful devices are not going to be practical except in vacuum tubes. In nature nothing exists in size between individual molecules and the smallest viron. There is a reason for this. If you look at things at the nano scale air molecules look like bowling balls moving at a kilometer a second. These have a tremendous impact on things at small scale and break them up. It requires either very strong molecular forces or a large enough mass to keep these impacts from destroying what you are trying to build. As a result you can build things in a high vacuum in that ‘forbidden’ size zone, but as soon as you expose them to the air they are destroyed.

The upside to that is that it basically ends the possibility of a ‘grey goo’ of nano replicators destroying life on earth. The down side is that many potentially useful devices are not going to be practical except in vacuum tubes.

]]> By: Ming-the-merciless http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989789 Ming-the-merciless Fri, 28 Jan 2011 23:30:01 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989789 @flashgordon, Just remember: When those voices in your head start to get too loud, it must be time to take your medicine. @flashgordon,

Just remember: When those voices in your head start to get too loud, it must be time to take your medicine.

]]> By: Instapundit » Blog Archive » NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Scaling up from atomic assembly and individual nanodevices to macroscopic sy… http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989756 Instapundit » Blog Archive » NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Scaling up from atomic assembly and individual nanodevices to macroscopic sy… Fri, 28 Jan 2011 19:13:05 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-989756 [...] NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Scaling up from atomic assembly and individual nanodevices to macroscopic systems. [...] [...] NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Scaling up from atomic assembly and individual nanodevices to macroscopic systems. [...]

]]> By: flashgordon http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-986014 flashgordon Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:52:55 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=4359#comment-986014 don't worry, the irrationalists will ban it all. They'll say we're not allowed to eat from the tree of life; they'll say we shouldn't be 'playing god.' What that reason is won't be made known; questions won't be asked or they'll shut you up. don’t worry, the irrationalists will ban it all. They’ll say we’re not allowed to eat from the tree of life; they’ll say we shouldn’t be ‘playing god.’ What that reason is won’t be made known; questions won’t be asked or they’ll shut you up.

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