From: Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Sun Mar 17 2002 - 13:22:34 MST
On Sun, 17 Mar 2002 Spudboy100@aol.com wrote:
> Also ultra-sound would disrupt molecular mechanisms, precisely if they
> were non-carbonaceous in nature. Silcon and even metals go pop! Carbon
> has some resiliency against ultrasound, yet at a molecular level would
> still be likely, vulnerable. Adios gray goo?
To sterilize this planet*, all it takes is a giant impact, enough to melt
the crust some 10 km down. Nothing to it.
If I have a bottle of gray goo sitting on my table, it's trivial to
destroy it. (Well, I'd need access to a special lab to dispose of it
properly, but you get my point). If I have that same bottle broken up and
contents released in the winds at 10 km height, we have a different
problem class altogether. The only solution would seem to demand a
somewhat radical treatment, as above.
A smart solution would require a worldwide nanoimmune system, but if you
look at it en detail you realize that the presence of blue goo screws the
ecology just as badly. (Even if you manage to install blue before someone
starts peppering you with gray). Machine phase stuff can be in a dynamic
equilibrium with each other, but unfortunately wet life winds up at the
loser end.
(*=just this planet, impact ejecta will carry the seeds everywhere (well,
they are everywhere already, so it doesn't matter that much).)
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