[extropy-chat] Avoid Too Much Change.

[Russell Wallace]

On 4/11/07, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
>
> Do you have a problem with machine-phase? I'm all ears. Tell me why it
> wouldn't work.
>

I think some form of machine-phase is a fine idea. That doesn't imply a
science fiction style matter duplicator. Remember the arguments between
Drexler et al and Smalley et al, where Smalley's side pointed out that
there's no such thing as a machine that can arbitrarily manipulate atoms
(because the manipulator would have to be itself made of atoms), and
Drexler's side replied that this doesn't mean we won't be able to do cool
things with nanotechnology. Which is true, but it does mean that the early
ideas about extremely general disassembler and assemblers are a thing of the
past; today's designs are looking a lot more realistic - and a lot less like
matter duplicators.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20070411/54e3c3ed/attachment.html>