...s already firmly established, and more recently the techniques of virtual reality have enabled researchers to don gloves and goggles and actually alk around the image of a molecule and to maneuver to molecules together molecular docking. Rheingold, p. 14-15 Nanomachines that are used for molecular manufacturing can already be found in nature, most prominently RNA and DNA, as ell as enzymes hich contribute to cell repair and reproduction and to the fabrication of proteins. And e already have man-made molecular machines such as artificial antibiotics hich are programmed to seek out specific disease organisms and destroy them. The next step ill be accomplished hen scientists can manipulate the same molecules in different ays by changing inputs or stored instructions. Custom-built molecules hich can process information and fabricate or manipulate other molecules can be used to assemble other molecular machines and could replicate themselves, just as in nature. Primitive nanoassemblers could build better assemblers, hich could build even better assemblers, hich could build a ide variety of products and accomplish a ide variety of tasks, hich could alter the ay that e live! The idea of molecular entities both reproducing themselves and also behaving as building blocks not only has models in nature but also in computer science. Many of us by no have had some experience ith computer viruses hich are usually premised on some form of self-replication. Researchers already rite computer programs that have only the purpose of riting other, more advanced computer programs. Using tools to build better tools is an ancient tradition. Nanocomputers might not be products of silicon and solder molecules naturally occurring molecules can be induced to change state back and forth, acting as a sitch, through pulsing laser light or minor electrical charges. Trillions of such molecules, hether natural or synthetic, could form a nanocomputer that ould produce unimaginably vast storage and processing capabilities. Possible use of nano technologyThe environment Drexler suggests that molecular manufacturing ill leave no aste and therefore no pollution. Molecules can be devised hich ill clean up the toxic astes and other ground and ater pollution produced in the 20th century. Other molecules ill be able to consume the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and solve the problem of the greenhouse effect and holes in the ozone layer. Products made through nanotechnological means could be disassembled and therefore recycled. Molecular manufacturing ill need to consume little to no natural resources and ill use very little energy. Forest land and plains hich have been cleared for lumber or for farming and grazing could be quickly restored. Medicine Nanorobots could be injected into the bloodstream and consume fatty cells or plaque in the alls of the blood vessels. They could also repair cell damage caused by cancer or AIDS. They could rebuild severed limbs and organs. Nanomedicine could reverse the effects of aging e ould not be able to live forever, but e could live a very long time though, as Drexler points out, after several decades of bad TV e may long for the peace of the grave. Nanomouthashes could eliminate gum disease and tooth decay. Nanomachines could act as security guards and attack any foreign entity in the body. And all could be programmed to leave the body through normal elimination hen their ork is complete. Manufacturing Almost any product e no use and many that e have never thought of could be made through molecular manufacturing. Materials ould be stronger, more durable, very inexpensive, and could even be smart enough to self-repair tears or fraying. Factories ith smokestacks ould be a thing of the past. Housing, food, clothing, appliances, all ould be cheap, abundant, and flaless. Transportation Lighteight and fast spacecraft could be made inexpensively, and space travel could be available to anyone. Molecular tunneling machines could rapidly and at lo cost create thousands of miles of tunnels underground, paving the ay for a national or international subay system ith trains hich could operate at aircraft or spacecraft speed. Automobiles, for those ho still anted one, ould be very cheap, very light, and very safe. They ould burn clean, inexpensive fuels very efficiently at high mileage. They could be loaded ith all the luxury options anyone could ever ant and still be easily affordable. Computers and information technology A desktop computer composed of trillions of nanocomputers ould possess more poer and speed than all of the orlds computers of today put together. Nanocomputers could make possible three-dimensional images so realistic that they could be photographed. The virtual reality technologies of today and the near future ould seem primitive compared to those made possible by nanocomputing. Research being done no into ubiquitous computing could lead, through nanocomputers, to a scenario much like e see in the TV series Star Trek and Star Trek The Next Generation in hich one needs only to speak and the computer ill respond to requests for information, for changes in temperature and lighting, for food, and so on. Advanced computing problems posed by artificial intelligence and hypertext systems ould be easily solvable and in turn ould contribute greatly to the easy use of nanocomputers. Cables resembling string could be run anyhere and ould enable one to hook into a orldide data netork. Small devices the size of a pocket calculator could readily contain the information and knoledge of every volume in the Library of Congress. aauz 6s5t5CJtaJ56CJtsaJCauz 1h à!ia8i8NormalCJsHaJmHsHtHAiDefault Paragraph FontaCauz i0Bi0Bi0Bi0Bi0Bi0Bi0Bi0Bi0Bi0Bi0B0 The DvDGtioitLIMBItENGLEZAtNanotechnology and gene engineering.dociahPiUnknon...
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