t05rrs%mpx1@LANL.GOV (Dick Silbar) (01/26/88)
David West replied to Godden's query about Drexler's work in a sardonic way, I think, by extrapolating the earlier remark to "...such a machine could then just be allowed to run and should be able to accomplish a century of progress in one hour." I am reminded of a novel some years back by Robert Forward, "Dragon's Egg", in which just that did happen in a civilization living on the surface of a neutron star.
dwt@EECS.UMICH.EDU (David West) (02/02/88)
In article <8801251914.AA24568@LANL.GOV> t05rrs%mpx1@LANL.GOV (Dick Silbar) writes: >...to accomplish a century of progress in one hour." I am reminded of a novel >some years back by Robert Forward, "Dragon's Egg", in which just that did >happen in a civilization living on the surface of a neutron star. Within that novel, no simulation was involved; the civilization "naturally" ran that fast because the dominant forces in its material basis were baryonic ("strong nuclear") rather than coulomb ("electromagnetic"). -Davi.