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From: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Grey Goo that's too smart for its own good
Message-ID: <2783@drivax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-Dec-87 19:36:27 EST
Article-I.D.: drivax.2783
Posted: Tue Dec  1 19:36:27 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Dec-87 14:04:00 EST
References: <799@sbcs.sunysb.edu> <2698@drivax.UUCP> <1063@sugar.UUCP> <2411@watcgl.waterloo.edu> <1445@m-net.UUCP> <1526@mmm.UUCP>
Reply-To: macleod@drivax.UUCP (MacLeod)
Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA
Lines: 32
Keywords: nanotechnology foresight drexler

In article <1526@mmm.UUCP> cipher@mmm.UUCP (Andre Guirard) writes:
>In article <1445@m-net.UUCP> russ@m-net.UUCP (Russ Cage) writes:
>>In <2411@watcgl.waterloo.edu> kdmoen@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Doug Moen) writes:
>>>[...]  If it *does* turn out to be possible to build Grey Goo,
>>>then by the time fabrication technology catches up, perhaps we can have
>>>a wide spectrum of Goo killing techniques already available.

Goo seems almost inevitable. It should not be a big problem, of itself;
the definition of Goo (for those not familiar with the problem) is that
of a nanomachine that will use any available energy and raw material to
reproduce itself periodically.  If it reproduces at 2x per year you have
one problem, relatively minor; if it reproduces at 512x per minute, you have 
quite another.

Goo will probably be built out of destructable materials, or with various
lethal trapdoors, like death in sunlight or at some laser frequency.  The
real danger is heuristic Goo that changes its spots.  It's at this point
that you start to rely on Good Guy Goo that's smarter and replicates 
faster than Bad Guy Goo and lies down and dies altruistically when it's
finished with the Bad Goo. 

The impact of this level of technology on society must not be underestimated.
I think it may pick us up and tear along the dotted line.  

In some respects, the AIDS viruses look like engineered nanomachines.
They attack the body in a way that's almost too clever for nature to have
come up with; they are a meta-disease.   Before the AIDS crisis is over, 
we may have to build up enough nanotechnology to confront AIDS on the
viral level with tailored organisms that parasitize the AIDS virus or
neutralize it in some other way.  This should be the gateway to
serious cellular-level nanotechnology, such as repair of damaged DNA,
and should enable us to deal with cancer and other viral disorders.