"O'Regan, Emlyn" <Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au> writes:
> By the time ufog is a reality, wouldn't most people be chock full of
> tiny little (nano) robots which collected debris in the lungs / poisons
> in food / any other unruly stuff, and got rid of it?
I think we must be careful about making assumptions about when different applications of nanotechnology become viable, I have noted that a lot of people seem to think that once we have an assembler just about everything will be built in a short order. I don't think so.
Nanoimmune systems are of course a very good idea, and I would guess medical nanotech will be one of the first major applications (depite all the restrictions, medical technology is a very profitable business and the transfer from basic research to application is fairly well streamlined). Most likely they will be in place before the ufog, even if they are crude. However, dealing with debris in the lungs and food is already done by macrophages and their intestinal counterparts; my guess it is a good idea to design the ufog to manageable by them rather than assuming everybody will have a nanoimmune system.
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y