From: Billy Brown (bbrown@transcient.com)
Date: Wed Mar 15 2000 - 14:06:09 MST
Zero Powers wrote:
> What is the difference between a "simple" nanobot attack and a complex
> nanobot attack? If a zillion nanobots invade my body and commence to
> dismantle me molecule by molecule, is that a simple nanobot
> attack?
A "simple" attack is a bunch of nanobots floating in the breeze, waiting to
bumb into something they can disassemble. A "complex" attack is a swarm of
robotic insects equipped to defeat your home security system, which sneak
into your house and inject you with the nanobots (or just shoot you, for
that matter).
> Do you invision some vaccine to boost my immune system from this sort of
> dismantling?
In the very early stages, when the nanobots are primitive, your immune
system may cope on its own. A little later, special drugs might help. But
by the time "complex" attacks are practical, you need to have a completely
artificial immune system to back up your natural one. The artificial immune
system would circulate sentry nanobots through your body, looking for
intruders, and then direct swarms of combat nanobots to destroy invaders.
A good system would be able to store a significant reserve of pre-build
nanobots, and would be able to co-ordinate their efforts and build
replacements on demand (within the limits of your body's energy supply, of
course). That should make you pretty much immune to small doses of any
invader that isn't dramatically more advanced than it is (although it won't
help much if you fall in a vat of disassemblers).
Billy Brown
bbrown@transcient.com
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