NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/sci/nanotech/541

Internet Message Format | 1992-08-31 | 1.6 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!sun-barr!rutgers!igor.rutgers.edu!planchet.rutgers.edu!nanotech
From: [e-mail] (Thomas Mc Kendree)
Newsgroups: sci.nanotech
Subject: Re: Evolution and nanotech
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 31 Aug 92 19:26:47 GMT
Sender: [e-mail]
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Approved: [e-mail]


[e-mail] (Ian) writes:
>A question which struck me the first time I heard about nanotechnology:
>    "How do we stop nanomachines from evolving away from their
>     original purposes ?"

 And then talks about a giant tank of self-replicating devices that also
produce a desired product.  Here are a couple more strategies (I believe
Dr Drexler came up with these first): Use self-replication only to create
enough production equipment for what you want to make, and disable the
ability to self-replicate before you turn on product manufacturing.

Monitor any population of self-replicators for changes (especially any
sudden growth within the population.)

When done with a production facility that included self replicators, take
some out, and exhaustively verify that you have totally unchanged samples
of your original assembler design.  Then destroy the rest of the assemblers,
and regrow from a verified clean copy when you need a batch of assemblers
again.

Finally, except for rapid growth in production facility, there is very little
need for self-replication.  Most nanomachinery will not need to be self-
replicating, so do not bother putting that capability into a product unless
it is necessary for that product to do its function well.