[extropy-chat] Plenty of room at the bottom

[Hal Finney]

Asimov had an even more prescient vision in Fantastic Voyage.
The miniaturized submarine and its inhabitants have been injected into
an artery:

> Owens said, "Arterial wall to the right."
>
> The Proteus had made a long, sweeping curve and the wall seemed about
> a hundred feet away, now.  The somewaht corrugated amber stretch of
> endothelial layer that made up the inner lining of the artery was
> clearly visible in all its detail.
>
> "Hah," said Duval, "what a way to check on atherosclerosis.  You can
> count the plaques."
>
> "You could peel them off, too, couldn't you?" asked Grant.
>
> "Of course.  Consider the future.  A ship can be sent through a
> clogged arterial system, loosening and detaching the sclerotic regions,
> breaking them up, boring and reaming out the tubes.  Pretty expensive
> treatment, however."
>
> "Maybe it could be automated eventually," said Grant.  "Perhaps little
> housekeeping robots can be sent in to clean up the mess.  Or perhaps
> every human being in early manhood can be injected with a permanent
> supply of such vessel-cleansers..."

This last idea in particular, that people could be injected with a
permanent supply of housekeeping robots that would circulate in their
blood stream and keep things clean and tidy, was 20 years ahead of
Drexler proposing a similar idea.

Hal