jwm@sun4.jhuapl.edu (James W. Meritt) (04/04/91)
How would nanomachines that are not in physical contact communicate at a non-trivial baud rate? Especially through a non-transparent media (like, say, injected into the bloodstream)? Jim Meritt [With great difficulty. Indeed, even without obscuring materials, it will be hard to use optical means in a device smaller than the wavelength you're interested in. It'd be like long-wave radio: no directionality at all. --JoSH]
jgsmith@bcm.tmc.edu (James G. Smith) (04/05/91)
As for how nanomachines within the body will communicate, the first and obvious solution is to communicate the way cells in the body communicate, via hormones and the like. For most uses of intra-body nanomachines, the same rate of communication that hormones provide should suffice. For faster communication you will almost certainly need structures dedicated to that purpose (e.g. nerve cells). [This sounds reasonable for the nanomachines in Drexler's rocket engine factory, less so for ones in a functioning human body--what chemicals are the nanobots going to use? If ones normally present, they'll be operating against a high-noise background; if not, I'd worry about their biological effects. An alternative method would be for the nanobots to communicate while in physical contact and diffuse messages between themselves by "gossiping". --JoSH]