"Keith_J._Emanuel.HENR801c"@XEROX.COM (06/06/89)
I was just thinking that one could have your nanoassemblers cranking out perfect $100.00 bills, or barrer bonds for that matter. We are opening the door to a completly new area of forgery. One where the best expert couldn't detect "real" from fake. Perhaps we need to speak about NanoScanners that can disassemble a new $100.00 bill and record the entire structure for later replication. Keith. [Well, maybe it's time to go back to the gold standard... --JoSH]
koreth@SSYX.UCSC.EDU (Steven Grimm) (06/12/89)
In article <8906120159.AA12572@athos.rutgers.edu> "Keith_J._Emanuel.HENR801c"@XEROX.COM writes: > Perhaps we need to speak about NanoScanners that can >disassemble a new $100.00 bill and record the entire structure for >later replication. > >[Well, maybe it's time to go back to the gold standard... --JoSH] As I recall, this was discussed briefly in EOC; Drexler suggested using rare elements. I envision something a bit different: when anyone can make anything given the proper raw materials, those materials will become the only (physical) things that are ever traded. If, say, carbon turns out to be vastly more useful than anything else for nanoconstruction purposes, then it would become more valuable than a less useful element. Of course, scarcity will come into play; titanium may not prove to be as useful as hydrogen, but it will certainly cost more. This could lead to a new sort of speculation, in which investors hunched at their terminals (or blended into their terminals, if you prefer) sit around trying to figure out which elements to buy and which to sell. --- These are my opinions, which you can probably ignore if you want to. Steven Grimm Moderator, comp.{sources,binaries}.atari.st koreth@ssyx.ucsc.edu uunet!ucbvax!ucscc!ssyx!koreth [They already do; cf the flurry of palladium speculation sparked by the cold fusion brouhaha. That's not the same, of course, as walking around with coins of the rare element in your pocket. I don't want to get into the issues of a "cashless society" here, as that's been discussed at length in other venues, but it seems to me that the provenance of physical tokens of exchange is the least of our problems coming up... Cher says, "If it came in a bottle, everyone would have a great body." Or a young body. Or a great mind... Ever read "Brain Wave" by Poul Anderson? I know plenty of people who, if it became possible to be physically self-sufficient, would drop right out of the economy just to avoid taxes. Just about the only facet of the human endeavor I *don't* see nanotechnology altering drastically is tourism... --JoSH]