[extropy-chat] Suicide the Green way

[spike]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-
> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
...
> 
> spike wrote:
> > So then cluey ones, how do we get DNA strands in a form that can be
> > launched and separated into individual strands?
> 
> Do you really need them individually separated? Extracting DNA from tissue
> is fairly easy (classic classroom demonstration that produces a gooey
> fibrous solution), and one could easily dry that out to small light fibre
> mats.

Ja, very thin mats might work.  I had in mind individual DNA strands because
then it would drift outwards by light pressure regardless of its orientation
in space or angular momentum upon release.  Consider a thin piece of foil
drifting randomly in interplanetary space without any guidance system.  It
might orient itself to reflect the light in the direction opposite to its
velocity vector.  Then it would pick up momentum from the photons and spiral
outward.  But it might rotate around and reflect in the direction of travel,
thus spiral inward.  It might be slowly rotating so that it accelerates part
of the time and decelerates part of the time with no net gain or loss in
distance from the sun.  There is no guarantee of eventually climbing out of
the sun's gravity well.

My notion was that if we manage to isolate our DNA into strands, then
perhaps somehow plate on a few atoms thickness of aluminum, it would be thin
and light enough that it would be pushed away from the sun regardless of its
orientation.  Amara could do the actual calcs on that, or I can estimate
them to single digit precision. 

> Maybe a bit of gel electrophoresis, and then we freeze the gel or turn it
> into an aerogel?

Possibly, but again I am thinking of the minimum mass.

> 
> The UV radiation is bad for DNA, so if you want to keep it intact it
> oought to be protected. Aluminium foil perhaps, and why not make it a tiny
> solar sail? If you just want to make sure your carbon leaves, maybe you
> should get it integrated into a carbon fiber solar sail:
> http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/carbonsail_000302.html

Cool idea, but the usual solar sail requires some kind of guidance system to
keep the proper orientation.  I have a much simpler and lighter scheme in
mind: getting the mortal remains or DNA to leave the neighborhood completely
without further assistance.


> 
> As long as it is less than 0.78 g/m^2 it will tend to drift outwards...
Anders Sandberg

Anders, that number applies if the sample is out of the earth's gravity
well.  I am looking at the possibility of using light pressure to actually
escape earth gravity as well as the sun's, and possibly even the galaxy's
gravity and the supercluster, altho Amara would need to help me with that
calculation.  I am not certain that last part can be done practically.

spike