RE: Nanotech Arms Race

From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Fri Jan 22 1999 - 08:39:01 MST


Gina Miller wrote:
> Nanotechnology is based at the nanoscale and would apply itself with
> molecular machinery..

Just because you have the ability to work with individual atoms doesn't mean
that you want to do everything that way. There are two common situations
where a different approach is needed.

First, you often need abilities that can't be built into a nanoscale device.
Nuclear power is one good example - a nuclear reactor has to be big enough
to capture its own radiation output, or you don't get any energy out of it.

Second, it is often more efficient to use larger machines. If you want to
move a ton of matter from point A to point B, a truck is a lot more
efficient than a horde of nanobots.

Real nanotech won't use nanobots for everything. It will use a combination
of normal and molecular manufacturing techniques to build whatever tools are
best suited to the job at hand, whether nano-, micro-, macro- or megascale.

Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com



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