From: hal@finney.org
Date: Wed Sep 01 1999 - 12:34:24 MDT
I interpreted the active shield as being a dispersed set of nanobots
which would exist throughout the ecosystem and act as an immune system.
Any harmful (or perhaps just unapproved) nanobot would be targetted and
destroyed. You could also have these in your house and even in your body,
although the hope would be to eliminate threatening nanotech before it
got that close.
There is a good fictional interpretation of this in Neal Stephenson's
Diamond Age. There is a constant warfare between good and bad nanotech
going on all around. The air is full of "soot", which is composed of
the destroyed bodies of the broken nanotech. Apparently the good guys
always win as nobody melts down in the book, as I recall.
Hal
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