billw@killer.UUCP (Bill Wisner) (11/07/87)
nickyt@agent99.UUCP (Nick Turner) writes: >I refer all of you who are interested in nanotechnology to Eric Drexler's >masterpiece called "Engines of Creation." It is >the< book to read on the >topic, and it just came out in paperback. Sorry I don't have pub info on >hand right now. Engines of Creation: Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, 1986, $17.95. The trade paperback edition is now available, as well. The Mid-December issue of Analog (a science fiction magazine) contains a factual article by Chris Peterson and K. Eric Drexler entitled Nanotechnology. It packs some of the main ideas from Engines of Creation into a few pages. You should still read the book, though. >I recall one image that might be worth some discussion. In the book Drexler >describes a system where rocket engines (and virtually anything else you >could imagine) would be grown in vats. One "seed" machine the size of a very >large virus is dropped into the nutrient mixture, and it in turn assembles >machines that then assemble other machines, and so on, until eventually this >wondrously detailed macroscopic structure begins to emerge. The potential >kinds of things we could build with such a system are unlimited. >If you could design such a system, how would you make it work? What sorts of >stuff would you build/grow? What kinds of atoms and molecules would you use >in your structures? How would the nutrients be circulated? How would you deal >with the inevitable waste products? How would you supply energy to the nano- >machinery? These are important questions. Any ideas out there? The possibilities are endless. Just to give one example, I can see NASA becoming very involved in nanodesign. Is that a word? Manufacturing parts for spacecraft - or even entire vehicles - via nanotechnology would provide safer equipment (no faulty O-rings) and more efficient equipment. The choice of what atoms and molecules depends on what you're making, of course. For spacecraft, I'd have the nanomachines synthesize lightweight materials that can withstand heavy stress. If I were "growing" suits for the astronauts to wear during EVA, I'd make it like a second skin: when the suit clings to your body, there's no bulky, clumsy suit to get in your way. Without the weight of that cumbersome suit, the astronaut will be freer to perform more activities in space. Current suits must be tough in order to withstand possible punctures. Nanodesigned suits would be just as tough, without the extra bulk that imples. But I ramble. If you're growing your items in vats, then the obvious answer is to use water-soluble nutrients that are circulated in the very liquid that the nanomachines do their work in. The waste products could be filtered right out of the same water. And it would probably be a very good idea to simply design nanomachines that get energy from water. -- Bill Wisner, HASA "A" Division ..{codas,ihnp4}!killer!billw "I don't mind at all.." -- Bourgeois Tagg