On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:06:45 -0700 (PDT), DougL
> Most times I don't worry about Grey Goo. It typically violates
> conservation of energy big time (often along with just about every
> other physical law that would be expected to apply to such stuff).
All living cells have a rather convoluted design, in which various
obvious and major improvements are possible. Suppose someone goes
ahead and makes these major improvements - starting with
microorganisms, of course, since that is a lot easier and cheaper.
Perhaps he intends to introduce these improvements in people. The
microorganisms get loose.
We are always competing with microorganisms - they rot our food, cause
diseases, and so forth. Better microorganisms, without better people,
could be a serious problem.
"Grey goo", however, assumes very radical improvements - that instead
of ribosomes, these micro organisms have systems that give
substantially finer control of matter, and that these micro organisms
cut loose and evolve. These new microrganisms would likely take over
the biosphere in the way same way that protein based organisms
obliterated RNA based organisms.
The simplest way of keeping control of self replicating systems is to
make sure that they depend on foodstuffs not found in nature to
replicate: dimethyl ether and trimethylamine are probably good, until
some bright fellow decides to program these things to take apart
garbage.
Another tactic is to design them so that they rely on external data to
reproduce, but this tactic looks disturbingly fragile against
mutation.
--
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We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because
of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this
right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.
http://www.jim.com/
James A. Donald
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