From: Eric Watt Forste (arkuat@idiom.com)
Date: Thu Nov 11 1999 - 17:45:26 MST
Robert Bradbury writes:
> It goes without saying that if one is serious about these possible
> problems that these are things that should not be discussed in
> a public formum such as this. Whether or not the encryption &
> communications software exists today to take the discussion offline
> and keep it secure for the next 5-10 years, *is* something I'd
> like to hear comments on.
I'm startled to see you make this claim. I agree with Eric Drexler
that keeping these discussions out of the public eye is far the
more dangerous course of action. As I write, I'm quite sure that
there are several research projects in foundational nanotechnology
being carried on in secret by the governments you are trying to
hide from. Keeping our research secret from the public (and thereby,
unknown to other groups who might help us) is the best way to ensure
that the military labs will be able to maintain their lead over
labs that publish.
As for the problem of CAD tools for nanotechnology, I think we
need a survey of existing molecular-modeling software, and a
requirements document (or more simply, a delta) focusing on the
differences between the requirements of a designer working on
mechanical-phase nanotechnological designs and the requirements
of a designer working in solution-phase on the development of
new drugs, proteins, etc. The bulk of existing
molecular-modeling packages are targetted to the requirements of
the latter sort of designer. The key step in progressing to the
next generation of molecular CAD software is clearly stating the
requirements delta, and then designing and programming software
toward that delta.
So we need a paper, preferably several papers, stating the
requirements (in the software engineering sense) for
molecular-nanotechnology CAD, and stating how they differ from
the requirements to which the current crop of molecular modeling
packages have been programmed.
-- arkuat
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