[extropy-chat] Lipid bilayer constraints and considerations -- Was Cryonics is the only option?

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On 4/19/07, Brett Paatsch <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:

> But I say, it can't be done. The physics and chemistry of the biomolecules
> won't allow it to be done as a manufacturing process.
>
> Anders you say it can? Then let's see how.

### You may want to consider that the macromolecules are for the most
part not bound covalently to each other. They are bound by weaker
interactions - hydrophobic, electrostatic, even van der Waals. This
means that merely placing such molecules in close proximity in the
right orientation should assure proper interactions, without the need
to induce complex chemical reactions. A molecular printer should
therefore be able to assemble the tissue out of single molecules, just
as similar simple assemblages of non-biological molecules have already
been made with STMs. It's true that many millions of different
molecular species would be needed by the printer, and the process
would be excruciatingly slow but I know of no fundamental physical or
chemical obstacles to its success.

This said, I really think molecular printing will not be necessary to
produce conscious devices patterned after vitrified brains. Ablative
scanning and in-silico reconstruction/modeling seem to be much easier.

Rafal