"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com> wrote:
> THE SCENE: Deep in the laboratories of the Singularity Emergency
> Response Team.
>
> Mitchell Porter came running in, waving an email. "Zyvex has had a
> little accident, and grey goo has eaten three major cities! What will
> we do?"
>
> "Let's use the anti-grey-goo nuclear weapons!" cried one person. "No,
> the blue goo!" "The active immune systems!" Conversation in the room
> quickly threatened to degenerate into chaos.
"Let's light a match!" cried Damien Sullivan. All conversation instantly hushed, as the room turned toward the one person who threatened the dignity of the crisis.
"April Fool!" said Mitchell Porter, dashing out.
> Says you. It could just as well happen after a decade. Straw man.
> Nobody specified overnight.
If the goo takes a decade to take over the world then we have a lot of time to fight it.
Randall Randall <wolfkin@freedomspace.net> wrote:
> It will very likely be made out of diamond, or similar materials. I am
Try fire. Oh, wait, not a lifeform. The goo must be safe.
And diamond and corundum take a fair bit of energy to chemically manipulate.
What's powering this goo?
> unaware that any natural lifeform is able to use diamond as raw material,
-xx- Damien Raphael Sullivan X-)