From: Calvin Ashmore (coa@andrew.cmu.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 15 2004 - 16:44:39 MDT
> I can't, but I can offer the nanonuts some wanking material:
>
> http://www.walterwatts.com/images/nanomotor2.jpg
This reminds me of a theory I've had on nanotechnology for a while:
In order to really be feasable, actual nanomachines couldn't be built to put
molecules together in the obvious way, they'd have to be based off of
proteins and the delicate processes that occur in living organisms. Which
would require being able to arbitrarily contrive a protein, which when
folded could do all the things you wanted it to. I certainly think that such
sorts of things are possible, but our understanding of how these things work
is so limited right now...
But, were we able to contrive of proteins which could work on parts of
molecules, we do know how to replicate protiens en masse, and moreover, it
would be possible to make an array of mixtures of these to turn raw material
into some intermediate substance, which could be passed into a next batch
which would modify it some more, and so on, ultimately producing a potato,
or a car, or something along those lines :]
Which is an idea, but a less conventional one. I'm guessing that
nanomachines are possible, but they are far away, and probably won't be like
what a lot of people expect.
-Calvin
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