[extropy-chat] [nsg] (no subject) (fwd from fhapgood at pobox.com)
Eugen Leitl
eugen at leitl.org
Mon Nov 17 22:15:58 UTC 2003
----- Forwarded message from Fred Hapgood <fhapgood at pobox.com> -----
From: "Fred Hapgood" <fhapgood at pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 15:09:51 -0500
To: nsg at polymathy.org
Cc:
Subject: [nsg] (no subject)
X-Mailer: MIME::Lite 1.2 (F2.71; T1.001; A1.51; B2.12; Q2.03)
Meeting notice: The 03.Nov.18 meeting will be held at 7:30 P.M. at the
Royal East (782 Main St., Cambridge), a block down from the corner of
Main
St. and Mass Ave. If you're new and can't recognize us, ask the manager.
He'll probably know where we are. More details below.
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->
Note: This list is moving to a new provider: polymathy.org. I am
asking subscribers to resubscribe directly. Those who have done
so should get two copies of this announcement: the last to be
distributed by the World and the first by Polymathy. If you have
resubscribed to the list and do not get two copies within 24
hours the process has broken down somewhere. Let me know if
there are any glitches. The announcements in December will
be distributed by polymathy exclusively.
If you have not yet resubscribed but are interested in continuing
to receive these notices, either send blank email to nsg-
subscribe at polymathy.org or (if subscribing from a different
address than that to which notices are to be sent) fill out the
form at http://polymathy.org/mailman/listinfo/nsg_polymathy.org.
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->
Suggested topic: Nanotech action as a fiction genre. Recently I
got around to reading <i>Prey</i>, Michael Crichton's book about
NT- gone- horribly- wrong. At the time the book was published,
Chris Phoenix wrote a trenchant critique, demonstrating
convincingly that subtracting the sum of the risibly implausible
and physically impossible reduced the work by about nine pages
out of ten.
Still, there should be a quasi- realistic NTGHW story to be told
(as opposed to a mere speculation; the difference being that a
story requires a resolution at the end). Two weeks ago I put the
question to the group. Dave spun some entertaining variations on
the theme of evil environmentalists using nanotech to wipe out
the human race, but nothing quite jelled.
In a NT-gone-wild world, every tenth person would be busy
programming self- replicating agents to advance their interests.
Teenage boys would program agents to follow pretty girls home and
grow cameras in their shower. Anti-violence groups would release
agents that would infect your limbic structures, go to sleep,
wake up when you were about to be "violent", and then put you
back to sleep, or perhaps just in a nicer mood. Corporations
would program agents that would make you a better consumer. Pro-
life groups might use agents to prevent abortions. The DEA would
write agents that would look for marijuana plants and infect
them. Sports fans might program agents designed to screw around
with the physics of the ball or puck depending on who had
possession .
This reality -- even this prospect, bandied about the hyperactive
media -- would create a significant incentive to invent and
deploy an ecological immune system. One imagines a sort of smart,
active self-replicating film or fabric that would drape over
buildings, cars, people, trees, pets, and so on, processing the
water and air passing through it, searching for and killing
agents of any sort. One possible story concept would be a "Phil
Zimmermam meets NT" knock-off, in which the FBI tries to get a
back door built into the EIS but are frustrated by sexy, heroic,
libertarian hackers.
The trouble with that scenario is that in a world whipped up by
the threats detailed in the paragraph above there would be
hundreds, maybe thousands of EIS development projects, because
no one would trust anyone else's work product. Every country,
lots of every research groups, lots of ad hoc groups of
engineers, open source consortia, etc,, would be cranking them
out.
In fact there would almost certainly be a huge auto-immune
problem, since every EIS will label every other as a threat. The
entire complex of interactions would unleash an intense selection
pressure for the smartest and most lethal agents.
This might or might not be a story, but it's definitely a
scenario. Is there any reason why it isn't our default future?
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->
In twenty years half the population of Europe will have visited
the moon.
-- Jules Verne, 1865
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->
Announcement Archive:
http://www.pobox.com/~fhapgood/nsgpage.html.
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->
Legend:
"NSG" expands to Nanotechnology Study Group. The Group meets on
the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the above address,
which refers to a restaurant located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The NSG mailing list carries announcements of these meetings and
little else. If you wish to subscribe to this list (perhaps
having received a sample via a forward) send the string
'subscribe nsg' to majordomo at polymathy.org. Unsubs follow the
same model.
Comments, petitions, and suggestions re list management to:
nsg at pobox.com.
www.pobox.com/~fhapgood
_______________________________________________
Nsg mailing list
Nsg at polymathy.org
http://polymathy.org/mailman/listinfo/nsg_polymathy.org
----- End forwarded message -----
-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20031117/8bc6e70a/attachment.bin>
More information about the extropy-chat
mailing list