Ok i know bugger all about nanotechnology, but i have been thinking about this question all day after I read this information from........... http://www.nanozine.com/WHATNANO.HTM ................................................................................................... Humanity will be faced with a powerful, accelerated social revolutionas a result of nanotechnology. In the near future, a team of scientistswill succeed in constructing the first nano-sized robot capable of self-replication.Within a few short years, and five billion trillion nano-robots later,virtually all present industrial processes will be obsolete as well as our contemporary concept of labor. ..................................................................................................... The goal of early nanotechnology is to produce the first nano-sizedrobot arm capable of manipulating atoms and molecules into a useful productor copies of itself. One nano assembler working atom by atom would be ratherslow because most desirable products (baseballs, cars, and the like) aremade of trillions and trillions of atoms. However, such an assembler robotarm could makes copies of itself and those copies make copies. Soon youhave trillions of assemblers controlled by nano super computers workingin parallel assembling objects quickly. And what would one build? That's the subject of the next segment. Allow me to leave you with a small list to ponder. How about microscopic computers,billions of times faster than today, controlling machines that patrol ourbodies as artificial immune systems. Machines that can repair cells ona molecular scale, that perhaps through manipulating DNA, could stop or reverse the aging process. How about self assembling consumer goods made in your own garage from atoms pumped out of the atmosphere. Space travel safe, inexpensive, andaccessible to all. Repave road surfaces with high efficiency self-assemblingsolar cells and quadruple the earth's energy availability. How about the end of famine and starvation with self-assembling automatic green houses allowing most of today's farmland to be returned to its' natural state.Ultimately, with atomic precision, food could be synthesized from raw atomsin the same nano universal assembler that just made a new pair of shoes.It's all a matter of software. ................................................................................................. Ok so i was wondering, is it possible that if someone accidentally through computer/software error/virus, terrorism or maybe oversite told these trillions of nano assemblers to manipluate atoms and go nuts then change your DNA, or convert the world oxygen into another gas of a poisonous nature, or maybe even target particular world resources , thus destroying them, whatever the scenario, you decide. Is it possible for nanotechnology to malfuntion, become uncontrolable and cause disaster on a catastrophic, unstopable level? As i said i know bugger all about nanotechnology, but from what ive read its pretty damn scarey, far more powerful than genetic manipulation in the wrong hands. cheers
I suspect we won't know until it's developed. But when terrorism's involved, it seems anything is possible.
I concerned myself with the following points of any Nanobotic foreign body: 1: Semi-conductors are renound for being able to handle a specific heat, which is far beyond that of what a biological system can handle. This means that a semiconductor that is superconducted through microwave resonation can actually "Burn" the host that its in. 2: Nanobots will need a method of transfering information between themselves or a controlling system, this means they will broadcast (although it will be a seemingly low distance 5-10 metres), this is enough to increase the brains natural electromagnetic flux to the point of being able to be picked up by satellite sensor arrays. This means that you could be tracked, and followed without knowing that that grain of sand that seems to have been irratation your eye for the past 6 months is actually a nanobot dropped from a weather balloon and sent to it's destination by a form of lazer guiding, and satellite matrix manipulation. 3: It is known that radiation can cause Cancer (well the mutation of cells) a nanobot would quite possibly be more trouble than it actually fixes just by broadcasting with radio signals. Of course all of these points are the "worse case scenario's" there might be pro's to their usage, but I think they would be an invasion on civil liberty's due to the "Spying" nature. (Imagine you get some to fix something, and the hospital is suppose to take them out, but instead they leave them in and sell the communications signal address to one of those market research companies... suddenly your inendated in junk mail, you bank account is attacked by hackers, and your signed up for a secret research program as a guinea pig against your wishes.)
