[extropy-chat] Nanoassembly Blueprints using Atomic Resolution MRI

[A B]

Hi Robert,

Robert wrote:

"What makes you think this?  The primary requirement
> for off-Earth
> sustainability is the ability to convert X watts of
> solar or nuclear energy
> into resources (primarily water and reduced
> carbohydrates)  required to
> sustain human bodies as currently designed (humans
> are generally 100W
> machines, but if you look at plant food source
> efficiencies it probably
> requires 5-10,000 W of solar energy to produce the
> required food).  You have
> to make a case that the direct synthesis of the
> required molecules
> (nanoassembly) would be more efficient than existing
> nanoscale based systems
> (plants, bacteria, chemical synthesis, etc.)"

The main "advantages" I was thinking of were a
possibly considerable size(space) and weight savings
for the space colony, plus a potentially much simpler
(probably cheaper) internal environment. For example,
if you could just rebuild a strawberry to eat, you
wouldn't require any specialized light sources, soil,
bacteria, nutrients, additional physical space, etc.

Whatever the case turns out to be, the near future
will, without a doubt, be very exciting. :-)

Best Wishes,

Jeffrey Herrlich


--- Robert Bradbury <robert.bradbury at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 4/3/07, A B <austriaaugust at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > http://www.csulb.edu/~mbarbic/atomres.htm
> >
> > [Beware: Twice when I clicked the internal
> hyperlink to this professor's
> > home page (not the above page), IE had to shut
> down due to an error. Just an
> > innocent glitch I'm sure, but all the same.]
> 
> 
> Which is funny since the pages seem to have been
> written in MS-Word (ROTFL).
> It is worth noting that the Diagrams in his pages do
> not display because the
> image path he is using is using a backslash rather a
> slash to indicate
> directories (may work on Windows but isn't standard
> HTML!)
> 
> If AR-MRI does become possible (and I guess it looks
> both possible and
> > practical), it could potentially improve our
> chances of achieving true
> > "outside-Earth" sustainability; like in a space
> colony for example.
> 
> 
> What makes you think this?  The primary requirement
> for off-Earth
> sustainability is the ability to convert X watts of
> solar or nuclear energy
> into resources (primarily water and reduced
> carbohydrates)  required to
> sustain human bodies as currently designed (humans
> are generally 100W
> machines, but if you look at plant food source
> efficiencies it probably
> requires 5-10,000 W of solar energy to produce the
> required food).  You have
> to make a case that the direct synthesis of the
> required molecules
> (nanoassembly) would be more efficient than existing
> nanoscale based systems
> (plants, bacteria, chemical synthesis, etc.)
> 
> With the appropriate software (and a practical level
> of hardware), it
> > appears to me that scanning with AR-MRI could
> provide on-the-fly blueprints
> > for a nanofactory or nanoassembler.
> 
> 
> We already have nanoassemblers.  They are called DNA
> polymerase, RNA
> polymerase and ribosomes.  We already have
> "nanofactories". Sugar cane is a
> good example.  Cyanobacteria are another.  I think
> what you mean to say is
> "general purpose" nanoassembler and "universal"
> nanofactories.
> 
> Having AR-MRI doesn't give you squat with respect to
> blueprints for
> structures which currently *do  not exist*.  Those
> have to be designed or
> evolved.  That was the primary point behind the
> Nano at Home proposal that I
> wrote several years ago.  The only thing AR-MRI
> gives you, potentially, is
> the ability to precisely read existing structures. 
> That means that
> structures which are difficult to read using other
> methods, such as precise
> reading of synaptic junctions of frozen neurons, may
> be feasible.  In my
> mind AR-MRI is only useful for assisting in the
> determination of molecular
> structures which are impossible to crystalize (which
> is likely to be help in
> the scientific understanding of complex
> multi-molecule structures,
> particularly for example those involved in oxidative
> phosphorylation in the
> mitochondria, or potentially the process of mind
> uploading).
> 
> For example the blueprints of a variety of foods
> could be obtained and used
> > to reconstitute those objects. The applications
> for this would be huge. But,
> > like most things technology, it could also be used
> to harm. Hopefully, the
> > good uses will overcome the potentially bad ones.
> 
> 
> We know the enzyme pathways required to produce
> sugar (and more complex
> carbohydrates), fats and amino acids.  The
> blueprints for the machines
> needed in these molecular assembly lines are sitting
> in Genbank (in may
> cases we have dozens of variations on the
> assemblers).  We do not *yet* have
> the blueprints for the machines which efficiently
> assemble less common
> molecules such as resveratrol or cone snail toxins
> or very complex molecules
> such a brevitoxin B (though I believe in all cases
> we can chemically
> synthesize them).
> 
> Robert
> > _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>
http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
> 



 
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