[ExI] not yet nanobots, but micro-bots

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> 
Sent: Thursday, 18 December, 2025 7:34 AM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>; extropolis at googlegroups.com
Cc: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com>; spike at rainier66.com; BillK <pharos at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] not yet nanobots, but micro-bots

 

Engines of Creation is certainly a landmark work.  But I knew Eric to have exceptional ideas from 1975 when we were both at the Space Manufacturing Conference at Princeton.  By the 1979 conference, when he started talking about nanotechnology, we had written two papers jointly, one on using vapor phase manufacturing to build large structures in space, and another on dust-filled radiators to get rid of waste heat in space.  Both papers were mentioned favorably by the conference organizers, and we filed for patents on them.  Alas, the patents have long expired, because we were way too far ahead of time.

 

I think Eric recommended _The Selfish Gene_ to me.  It deeply influenced my thinking and eventually led me into evolutionary psychology.  I wrote some of the earliest articles about memes and gained a mention for coining "memeoids" in the second edition.

 

It has been an interesting life--so far.

 

Keith

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keith, you are far too humble sir.  You post here like you are just another one of the lads, yet you have done all this cool stuff.  I have been around you enough to know, you never go around acting like a bigshot, when if you did, it wouldn't be an act: you are an actual bigshot.  So if wyou went around acting like one, it isn't arrogance, it is just telling the truth.

 

Ja, it has been an interesting life so far.

 

Regarding Clarke's Profiles of the Future, I am sending two photos, in separate postings for a reason, which I will explain.

 

This is the front side of a coffee mug:

 



 

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20251218/e6e4043a/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 25640 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20251218/e6e4043a/attachment-0001.jpg>