From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Fri Nov 29 2002 - 08:10:44 MST
On Thu, 28 Nov 2002, Peter C. McCluskey wrote:
> It's unclear to me whether anyone is predicting grow-a-car-from-seed
> technology by 2020.
Peter may need to take into account that we have several rice genome
sequences either completed or in progress. There will be a huge
amount of pressure (in China, India & Japan) to be able to grow
five inch tall rice plants that consist of nothing but rice grains.
[One doesn't want to grow a "plant" -- one wants to convert solar
energy directly into "food".]
So the technology to grow a specified "something" from a seed
may very well be available before 2020.
> I predict assemblers by 2020, but I think a better analogy than
> seeds is the kind of rapid prototyping system (3-d printer)
> made by Stratasys Inc. or 3-D Systems Corp.
Yes, this is a completely alternate manufacturing method and
may be quite more productive than traditional "growth" paradigms.
Think of a traditional "growth" paradigm as one produces a
"duplicate" cell that subsequently produces or evolves into
a specific type of material. (Ref: tree Xylem vs. Heartwood).
Assemblers that operate on the expansion of the surface of
a material have a much faster expansion ability than those
that operate on a division (or duplication) of existing cells.
The cells do not need to be duplicated -- only the assemblers
(and potentially the code that directs them) is required.
So the existing process of producing cells that produce
assemblers, some of which copy the code seems very inefficient.
One wants assemblers that self-terminate when their error
rate becomes too high. And one wants a more sophisticated
system for delivering feedstock to the assemblers.
Mind you the bloodstream is a very sophisticated system.
But it needs to be improved.
Robert
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