Grey Goo Theory

The dangers of nanotechnology have been highlighted by Prince Charles this week. While nanotech has the benefits of ultra lightweight materials, superfast microprocessors and atom manipulation few consider its danger scenario. If a single nanobot (robot on nano scale) can reproduce itself out of raw materials through atom manipulation, what if it doesn’t stop? If each nanobot reproduced itself and this trend continued it would mean an exponential increase in nanobot population. More nanobots = more raw materials processed. On the atomic scale however raw materials all look the same, a bunch of atoms. So a pile of sand or a human are the same to the nanobot. If rouge nanobots started reproducing they could consume all life on earth. The expected result is grey goo. This grey goo would be everything on earth converted into nanobots. If one rouge nanobot escapes how can you stop it beginning the cycle of destruction. You can’t see it, you cant squash it like a bug.

But ultra fast processors would lead the way for the next generation of computing and A.I. Lightweight materials would produce more efficient vehicles and allow contruction of larger buildings. Atom manipulation would allow longer life and cure diseases.

So I ask you, are the benefits of nanotech worth the risk?

Anthony
Tunk has no friends :(
62.254.0.7
2003-04-27
16:20:59
On the subject of grey goo Thats what the worlds going to be full of anyway soon enough. All these silly little white girls, falling for black men, (or getting raped by them, all criminals) making their offspring, half caste... add into this pakis and japs etc... the children are sludge coloured.... Its only a matter of time before this happens all over, and everyone is 'sludge coloured' :(
Quantum
admin@deltanova.co.uk
62.254.0.8
2003-04-27
16:51:17
So I see you haven't based that on your stereotypical racist views on todays world.
Anthony
Tunk has no friends :(
62.254.0.8
2003-04-27
16:57:48
What you mean tunkster? I have very deep views on the whole racial debate, as im sure you know. I just thought i would keep it short and sweet, and sum things up perfectly... 'Criminal' 'sludge coloured' simple. Im not racist anyway...
Paul
admin@deltanova.co.uk
195.92.194.14
2003-04-27
18:26:13
me neither, although I wouldn't be completely against some kind of deportation law coming into effect getting rid of all ethnic minorities. Whether that's by sending them back to their own country or just putting them on a boat, sending it to the middle of the atlantic and sinking it, I don't mind.
srinivas
srinithin@india.com
61.246.54.92
2005-07-21
14:46:52
Offcourse all matter in this world has its own advantage and disadvantage. But nanotech will change this old world into a revolutionary one in almost 20 years. Where everyone will be usng the recent technology. And staying not in land but in space.Grey Goo Theory will obviously be true at this stage, but to a smaller extent.'If rouge nanobots started reproducing they could consume all life on earth.' can not be true because there has to be somone to ontrol the immortal like in the movie 'Bicennential man'.
G-Unit
gxrxeadf@aol.com
24.199.74.222
2005-07-31
12:44:34
Yes I agree. Kill em all. Then again those criminal, sludge-colored people and their offsrping are too dumb to ever invent anything nearly as complicated as a reproducing nano-robot. And if the world becomes them, then this discussion is irrelevant because then there wouldn't be a white person to discover reproducing nano-robots. Kill em all, before they hatch!
Katie
hi_oh07@yahoo.com
64.123.124.187
2005-11-21
18:52:13
Someone has forgotten that the 'Gray Goo' theory is not about race. It's about the overproduction of nanorobots. I refute the theory. You never know unless you try.
Greylight
dan_buchan@hotmail.com
195.92.168.173
2005-12-18
22:37:18
The theory doesn't seem plausable. If a robot on such a minute scale was produced, it is lightley one would go free.However, a robot cannot construct itself out of random raw materials, necessary ones would have to be present.A nano robot wouldn't be able to recreate another one of itself out of wood.This means the hole world wouldn't turn into grey goo, only some of it would. Who says the robots are grey anyway, why can't they be blue or red
Prof. B.A.Tregawkin
britreg@hotmail.co.uk
82.148.44.137
2008-03-21
16:55:46
greylight, a nanobot can can indeed recreate itself out of wood, since at the atomic level, wood is comprised of the same elements as you or me or R2d2 or milk or wool or cork or water... a self replicating nanobot needs only have access to a handful of fundamental elements. so at the atomic scale there is no major difference between wood and metal... the difference lies only in the arrangements of atoms in molecules
Matt Yabsley
mattyabsley@hotmail.com
88.75.37.67
2008-08-10
23:01:37
Some of the racist comments on this page deserve nothing short a jail sentence! There is no difference between white or coloured people other than skin tone. Obviously these idiots are too consumed with feelings of inadequency that they forgot this story was about nanorobots, a subject that surely must be as far away from the subject of race as any. Nano robots are just everything, our single most powerful hope of longer, pain free life. Something that would bring relief/prevention to billions of people over the next thousands of years. One of our biggest enemies is that of which we can't see, (virus/germs) Nanorobots will enable us to survive future mutations that previously would of culled the species (plague etc) Interesting thought, at the molecular level or certainly the atomic level we would be able to introduce changes in the pigment cells of stupid racists to make them black or visa versa as a nice form of punishment for ignorance! Voila!
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