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DarkCeldori t1_jdtj2v2 wrote

Reply to comment by jsalsman in Drexler–Smalley debate on molecular nanotechnology by jsalsman

Dumb grey goo is likely hard to engineer, as itd indeed need energy harvesting machines as parts of its design.

But asi goo has fusion fission fossil + super efficient solar geothermal and wind.

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jsalsman OP t1_jdtjtsi wrote

"asi"?

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DarkCeldori t1_jdtkmc0 wrote

Artificial super intelligence which would presumably move to nanomachine substrate that is immortal unlike current computer hardware which breaks down.

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pleasetrimyourpubes t1_jdusbm7 wrote

What scale are you talking here? I can see hive replication and industry being built. But that is not what I think of when I think "goo". I don't see some kind of Gaia style super nano hivemind. Surviving at the nano scale requires virtually all your capability as an organic system. I could see seed AI being propagated through an organic system, but it would be dumb, like an egg floating around, and wouldn't be able to hatch until certain criteria is met.

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DarkCeldori t1_jdvfa32 wrote

Cells are pretty powerful. Remember there are organisms with dozens of times the genetic code size of humans. So a lot can be coded in the genome.

An asi can design multicellular machinery that is unevolvable and immune to all known existing pathogens. While being able to breakdown all known biological life and human infrastructure. The cellular machinery can interact with inorganic computing substrate that controls and guides it. It can have energy harvesters and resource harvesters that keep the replication machinery churning at peak efficiency.

It could produce carbon nanostructured military equipment controlled by asi in large amounts, quickly exceeding all known militaries combined.

It would be the ultimate lifeform. The merging of information technology with biology.

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