[extropy-chat] Re: Self replication again (was MARS: Because

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004, Mike Lorrey wrote:

> With the first problem you are dealing with a 'ore' of rather
> high-entropy material in terms of isotope dispersion. Picking each atom
> out one at a time, shaking it, and sorting it into the right bin is a
> time consuming but rather simple process.

Actually Mike I don't think it is that bad -- one could use very high
throughput mass-spectrometers.  The other option is large numbers
of single proton massometers (Nanomedicine V. 1, Sec 4.4.3, pgs
103-104).  Interestingly scientists have actually produced working
devices based on the second idea over the last several years though
they work with slightly greater masses.  But the point would be that
they do work.  So one simply has the need for lots and lots of them
to measure single molecules/atoms.

Robert