[ExI] The most precious essence

Ben Zaiboc ben at zaiboc.net
Thu Feb 10 14:01:37 UTC 2022


On 09/02/2022 16:38, bill w asked:
> Just as biology is
> proof that nanotechnology is possible.   ben
>
> Would you elaborate on that just a tiny bit for me?  What is it about 
> biology? We are assuming the analogy is correct.  bill w

What I mean is that biology /is/ nano-scale mechanisms. It's a 
demonstration that molecular machines can exist and do useful things. 
Granted, the type of nanotechnology that is commonly talked about is not 
wet, protein-based nanotech, but we have a proof that at least wet, 
protein-based nanotech is possible. We call it 'Life'. Maybe we're just 
barking up the wrong (or at least more difficult) tree by focusing on 
'dry' nanotech. In fact, some nanotech research does focus on DNA in 
solution, but maybe we could take it further, and really use biology as 
a starting point for developing nanotechnology. We know that non-natural 
amino acids are possible, we can create some amazing materials using 
block co-polymers, organic chemistry can produce a huge array of 
structures that don't occur in nature. If we can stitch these things 
together, maybe we can derive a type of non-drexlerian nanotech that 
sidesteps the problems of diamondoid synthesis.

Ben
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