The four tourists stopped their hover jeep next to the old scrapheap, each of
them took out a tube of toothpaste an dropped in on the ground, they then used
their hand held computers to send the tubes a signal. The toothpaste tubes
seemed to dissolve into the ground which then began to writhe. Slowly a suit
of powered armour emerged appearing as if by magic. Climbing into their suits
the "tourists" set off for the nearby spaceport.
Well that's one possibility anyway. I could also see nanites making large
differences to logistics. I can't see them removing the need for a logistics
tail as some substances are still going to be rare.
--- Christopher Downes-Ward
> <Christopher_Downes-Ward@acuma.co.uk> wrote:
If the "Nanite Revolution" goes to the limits that theorists claim it will,
your metaphor will be
apt--magic. At which point we aren't playing SG or
DSII, we're playing Duelling Nanites--because sure as
puppies are cute, there will be counter-nano, and
killer nano, and hunter nano, and anti-nano-nano, and
anti-anti-nano-nano. Which is completely incompatible
with the rules of the game as written.
Some rabbit holes aren't worth chasing down.
> Christopher Downes-Ward wrote:
Sorry, nanites always seem too much like magic (or super-high-tech) to
me. When SF starts breaking the laws of physics like that, then you might as
well have Space Orks, too.
The real problem for doing such a thing with nanites is the computing
capapcity of the nanites.
Even with quantum computers (single atoms used to store bits), the nanites
would have limited capacity for computing and storage of instructions.
To do something as complicated as building power armor, they would have to
either be released in stages (each type preforming a specific task) or be
directed from outside (coordinating the millions of individual nanites).
Also all of the raw materials (at least elements, even if your nanites can
asseble molecules). I would expect finding the fuel to power the powerarmor
would be difficult. Even if you can fuse hydrogen at cool tempratures, you
would still need a large amount of power to start the process.
And the last drawback would be time. How long would it take a couple tubes of
nanites (solar powered, I assume, so that no energy input is required) to
assemble, molecule by molecule, a set of powerarmor? Weeks at the fastest,
months or years more likely.
On the other hand, nanites would be good for making slabs of armor (even
sandwiched, molecule thin layered, armor). And would be extreemly useful for
refining ores (100% pure plutonium).
They would also make extreemly nasty boobytraps (programmed to disassemble
molecules of everything except other nanites of the same type once exposed to
light).
-----
Brian Bell
-----
[quoted original message omitted]
Well I thought I'd get in on this Nanotechnology thread but I didn't know
anything about Nanotechnology. So I did a search and read several
articles......... Ok so if your like me here is the simple bit:
Nanotechnology - building materials atom by atom or molecule by molecule
Nanite - Atom sized robot that does the building.
I could find nothing on exactly how this works. What I did find would make a
good weapon.
It was called Gray-Goo. Basically Nanites that would attack
something and re-arrange its molecules to make more of themselves.
Mind you this did carry the warning of a weapon of mass destruction!
Also if nanites can turn anything into something else then conflicts might be
a pointless exercise. No fights over natural resources that's for sure.
[quoted original message omitted]
On Tue, 4 Dec 2001 06:14:10 -0800 (PST) John Atkinson <snip>
> Some rabbit holes aren't worth chasing down.
But the threads go on forever. Sounds like Pern...
Gracias,
I kind of like nanites as seen in the recent Weber/Ringo