[extropy-chat] Why no assembler design?

[bradbury]

On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 4:00am Alfio Puglisi <puglisi at arcetri.astro.it> wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> 
> >A considerable desideratum is an interactive nanoscale simulator, with more
> >or less accurate forcefields and a good approximation of bond
> >breaking/formation (Brenner's potential is too specialized and too coarse,
> >but it's a step in the right direction).

I have to disagree with Eugen here.  Robin and I, I believe, have (offlist) agreed
upon the problem being in pathways to assembly -- which is probably a problem
more in systems analysis (which Eric very briefly discusses in Nanosystems)
and less of a problem of molecular modeling.

Alfio:
> I'm asking: what is your
> estimate about the manpower and knowledge required to get an useful tool?
> Does one need to be a chemistry expert, or at least interface with one?
> Are there standard algorithms and/or formulas that can do the job?

I address some of the possible costs and time frames in [1].  Robert Freitas
has reviewed it and while he doesn't completely agree he doesn't disagree.

One of the major problems is understanding that nanoassemblers have to
be constructed from nanoparts.  First we have to solve the problem of
the design of nanoparts -- that is in part what Nano at Home (www.nanoathome.org)
is all about (it could use some programmers that want to join one or more of
its teams).  Second we need to solve the assembly of nanoparts.  Currently
that means either a biological paradigm (e.g. self-assembly of viruses) or
a "macro" assembly paradigm (e.g. robotic assembly in factories scaled
down to micron and nano scales [what Zyvex is doing]).  I try to outline
some paths for all of this in Appendix B of [1].

Robert

1. Bradbury, R. J., "Protein Based Assembly of Nanoscale Parts"
Normally at: http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Papers/PBAoNP.html
May be available later this week.  The Google cache may or
may not have an up-to-date copy if you search for it.
 
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