Crack the protein folding problem, to the extent of being able to generate DNA
strings whose folded peptide sequences fill specific functional roles in a complex
chemical interaction.
Email sets of DNA strings to one or more online laboratories which offer DNA
synthesis, peptide sequencing, and FedEx delivery. (Many labs currently offer this
service, and some boast of 72-hour turnaround times.)
Find at least one human connected to the Internet who can be paid, blackmailed,
or fooled by the right background story, into receiving FedExed vials and mixing
them in a specified environment.
The synthesized proteins form a very primitive “wet” nanosystem which, ribosomelike,
is capable of accepting external instructions; perhaps patterned acoustic vibrations
delivered by a speaker attached to the beaker.
Use the extremely primitive nanosystem to build more sophisticated systems, which
construct still more sophisticated systems, bootstrapping to molecular
nanotechnology—or beyond.
I’d like to address just the claim here that you could provide instructions to a nanosystem with a speaker. If we assume that the frequency range of the speaker lines up with human hearing, and that our nanosystem is in water, then the smallest possible wavelength we can get from our speaker is on the order of 7cm.
lamda=v / f= 1500 m/s / 20 kHz
How can you provide instructions to a nanosystem with a signal whose linear dimension is on the order of cm? How can you precisely control something when your manipulator is orders or magnitude larger than the thing you’re manipulating?
You can get microphones much smaller than 7 cm, and they can detect frequencies way lower than 20 kHz. There’s no rule saying you need a large detector to pick up a signal with a large wavelength.
I believe the original comment isn’t about the receiver, but about the emitter—that if you use audible-range sound or even ultrasound, the spatial resolution of the signal will be impossibly large compared to a nanobot. Each nanobot will be able to get the signal, but you won’t be able to only communicate with nanobots in a specific part of the body.
This might not be a fatal objection, since you could imagine some sort of protocol with unique addresses or whatnot, but it’s an objection.
Sure, if you can have all your pieces coordinate and stay coordinated with other. If you do that, you still have a communication problem, just a different one.
Can you provide more detail and maybe give some examples?
From this paper, page 26:
Has Drexler said anything which implies that step 4 would succeed without lots of trial and error?
I’d like to address just the claim here that you could provide instructions to a nanosystem with a speaker. If we assume that the frequency range of the speaker lines up with human hearing, and that our nanosystem is in water, then the smallest possible wavelength we can get from our speaker is on the order of 7cm.
lamda=v / f= 1500 m/s / 20 kHz
How can you provide instructions to a nanosystem with a signal whose linear dimension is on the order of cm? How can you precisely control something when your manipulator is orders or magnitude larger than the thing you’re manipulating?
You can get microphones much smaller than 7 cm, and they can detect frequencies way lower than 20 kHz. There’s no rule saying you need a large detector to pick up a signal with a large wavelength.
I believe the original comment isn’t about the receiver, but about the emitter—that if you use audible-range sound or even ultrasound, the spatial resolution of the signal will be impossibly large compared to a nanobot. Each nanobot will be able to get the signal, but you won’t be able to only communicate with nanobots in a specific part of the body.
This might not be a fatal objection, since you could imagine some sort of protocol with unique addresses or whatnot, but it’s an objection.
This isn’t about bots, it’s about a little tiny factory building your second-stage materials.
You can get the effect of a huge telescope lens with an array of smaller telescopes. Could you get the same effect for sound?
Sure, if you can have all your pieces coordinate and stay coordinated with other. If you do that, you still have a communication problem, just a different one.