mwm@VIOLET.BERKELEY.EDU (Mike Meyer, My watch has windows) (11/04/87)
>> For example, life extension requires that we understand deeply how >> aging affects the body. NT will help researchers, but it won't >> suddenly make them so much smarter that they understand in detail how >> life 'works'. "Help" is an understatement. As Drexler pointed out, the ability to dissasemble the molecules found floating inside of a cell atom by atom will be a major boost. Given that knowledge and the ability to restore all the molecules in a cell to the 'healthy' state, it's not clear how much you have to know about how life 'works'. As an analogy, a mechanic can fix a car without understanding the chemical reactions involved in combustion. >> NT remaking the world suddenly is simply not going to happen. An >> analogy is the old 'nuclear power too cheap to meter' idea. Comments? That was my primary reaction. Even if you assume that all the FM that drexler describes happens as described without unforseen nasties, you've still got to face the political problem of putting the results into use. Drexler seems to waltz around it, but never face it (but I haven't finished the book). He claims that moving asteroids will be of great benefit, then mentions we have the technology to do that now. And ignores the question of why we're not moving asteroids. He then uses the "living space of the solar system" to hand-wave his way past objections to extended life spans. On the other hand, the generation before us saw transportation go from steam-powered ships crossing the Atlantic to regularly scheduled jet flights. Given that transister got their start at the beginning of this generation, what is computer technology going to be like at the end, and what are we going to do with it? <mike
SCHOLTES%ASC@sdr.slb.COM ("SCHOLTES%ASC@SDR.SLB.COM") (11/17/87)
I've started reading Drexler's _Engines_Of_Creation_, and had a fairly intriguing idea. (Disclaimer-- I haven't finished it, so maybe he beat me to this one). Drexler points out that mechanically instrumented computers on the microscopic scale will be very fast, and possibly more natural to build than electronic ones. So, imagine a Von Neumann computer, with the memory cells laid out on some substrate. The process of converting assembly language to machine language could be done in parallel by special-purpose nano-agents swarming all over the substrate like spiders; one kind to recognize ADD instructions, another for JMP, and so forth. (Imposing a Von Neumann architecture on an inherently parallel technology might be specious -- I haven't thought much about it yet). More complicated loop-optimizing beasties would need to establish monitors or other synchronization protocols. All kinds of interesting problems spring up; how do you download/upload? How do you know when they are finished? Can you implement traditional electronic computer fundamentals like remote memory addressing, dereferencing, etc.? What about hybrid electronic/nano-mechanical systems? Nano-nano. ---mike scholtes Schlumberger Well Systems, Austin Systems Center