<HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY >
<P>Thanks Jef!</P>
<P>Crucial piece of info: these nanobots are still OUTSIDE the body at this point. And there are a whole lot of them ready to be deployed. To a whole lot of people.</P>
<P>PJ<BR></P>
<TABLE>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD colSpan=2></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD width=5 bgColor=blue> </TD>
<TD>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2></FONT><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV align=left>
<HR>
<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>pjmanney<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, September 07, 2006 11:20 AM<BR><B>To:</B> wta-talk@transhumanism.org; extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org; transhumantech@yahoogroups.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> [extropy-chat] Research question<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<P>I'm working on the book and I've left a crucial, climactic section quite vague that I need to start to flesh out in detail. You know the kind of vague I mean: hero neutralizes the threat and action ensues. Only I was naughty and eager to just get writing and hadn't completed my research for it. So this is a theoretical question for all you engineers and physicists and just plain smart folk:</P>
<P>What would theoretically destroy nanobots? I guess the more specific question would be: what disassembles diamondoid nanostructures at an atomic level and reverts them back to harmless carbon atoms? Or simply screws with them enough to render them neutral/inactive/harmless? To give you some possibly important detail, these are medicinal bots and would be used internally in the brain. They would need to pass the blood/brain barrier after ingestion. And there are a whole lot of them. <SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2> </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Remove their external energy source, or if they're using the host metabolism then possibly poison it (without killing host), or relocate their energy source as a means of controlling their behavior, or...) (they're too small to carry their own fuel, right?)</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Modify their programming (with a virus, or by communicating with their controller, or lots of other possibilities here) to either stop them or convert them to some useful purpose. Exploit some bug in their programming in an unexpected way,.Force them out by infiltrating their command and control structure with similar, but benign nanobots.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Find and activate the secret failsafe or deadman switch built in by their designer.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>Give them a decoy host brain and when they're all there, destroy it. (Sorry, I'm sure that's too simple.)</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>I don't know of any chemical means to dissolve the diamondoid atomic bonds without killing the host, but I am not a chemist.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2>- Jef</FONT></SPAN></P></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR>
<TABLE>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD colSpan=2></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD width=5 bgColor=blue> </TD>
<TD>
<DIV align=left> </DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></BODY>