Singularity IV: Section E Will Computers Become Super Human
What’s wrong with Eric Drexler’s molecular machines?
The man who is said to have started nanotechnology is Eric Drexler, a space-systems researcher at MIT, who published Engines of Creation in 1986, in which he claimed that our ever improving ability to manipulate matter would lead to the creation of machine parts the size of small molecules. But Drexler says he was inspired by quantum physicist Richard Feynman, who gave an after-dinner talk in 1959 exploring the limits of miniaturization, and ended up by arguing the possibility, even the inevitability of "atom by atom" construction.
Drexler forsees the creation of machine parts the size of small molecules. These could be assembled into machines much smaller than biological cells, which could interact directly with the machinery of biology. Afterall, biology is nothing more than a bunch of molecular machines created and honed by evolution.
Drexler sees "molecular machines assemble molecular building blocks to form products, including new molecular machines." It is the ultimate dream of the computer scientist to realize the self-reproducing automata, or in this case, the self-reproducing nanrobot.
This alone caused much public alarm. So much so that Bill Joy, chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, wrote a long article in the Wired magazine in 2000 where he proposed that we should consider stopping the developments of nanotechnology for fear of being overrun by a mass of "grey goo" – self-replicating nanrobots.
Drexler continues, "Stepping beyond the biological analogy, it would be a natural goal to be able to put every atom in a selected place (where it would serve as part of some active or structural component) with no extra molecules on the loose to jam the works. Such a system would not be liquid or gas, as no molecules would move randomly, nor would it be a solid, in which molecules are fixed in place. Instead this new machine-phase matter would exhibit the molecular movements seen today only in liquids and gases as well as the mechanical strength typically associated with solids. Its volume would be filled with active machinery."
Drexler appears to be struggling towards the idea that the artificial molecular machines are like those of the living system, liquid crystalline with the texture of flesh (see main text). Living molecular machines are made up of at least twice their weight of ‘biological’ water – water that is an integral part of their structure and function. These molecular machines, densely packed and embedded in the liquid crystalline matrix runs in almost perfect cycles, drawing on coherent energy extracted and stored from metabolism. The living molecular machines basically borrow the coherent energy and return it only slightly degraded to the matrix. The efficiency of living molecular machines is such that they generate very little waste heat, which is why they can be packed so densely and work without burning out.
Of course, one of the biggest problems for artificial molecular machines, let alone self-replicating molecular machines, is the energy source. Another is energy dissipation – to get rid of the waste heat - neither of which Drexler has addressed. But there is a deeper problem.
The organism is run, in the ideal, on quantum coherence. And hence - this is the sting in the tail – the molecular machines cannot be individually controlled. Instead, the organism is a system of molecular democracy of distributed control. Each individual molecular machine operates with maximum freedom and is yet correlated with the whole.
What about "the most exciting goal" according to Drexler, "of the molecular repair of the human body"? Medical nanorobots that could destroy viruses and cancer cells, repair damaged structure, remove accumulated wastes from the brain and "bring the body back to a state of youthful health." Ah, the ultimate dream of immortality!
Unfortunately, our body’s immune system may well see these artificial molecular machines as foreign invaders and try to get rid of them, or worse, they might clog up the immune system for good.
Have they all gone stark raving mad and megalomaniac? Thankfully, there’s one lone voice of reason left from the IT revolutionaries.
The man who is said to have started nanotechnology is Eric Drexler, a space-systems researcher at MIT, who published Engines of Creation in 1986, in which he claimed that our ever improving ability to manipulate matter would lead to the creation of machine parts the size of small molecules. But Drexler says he was inspired by quantum physicist Richard Feynman, who gave an after-dinner talk in 1959 exploring the limits of miniaturization, and ended up by arguing the possibility, even the inevitability of "atom by atom" construction.
Drexler forsees the creation of machine parts the size of small molecules. These could be assembled into machines much smaller than biological cells, which could interact directly with the machinery of biology. Afterall, biology is nothing more than a bunch of molecular machines created and honed by evolution.
Drexler sees "molecular machines assemble molecular building blocks to form products, including new molecular machines." It is the ultimate dream of the computer scientist to realize the self-reproducing automata, or in this case, the self-reproducing nanrobot.
This alone caused much public alarm. So much so that Bill Joy, chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, wrote a long article in the Wired magazine in 2000 where he proposed that we should consider stopping the developments of nanotechnology for fear of being overrun by a mass of "grey goo" – self-replicating nanrobots.
Drexler continues, "Stepping beyond the biological analogy, it would be a natural goal to be able to put every atom in a selected place (where it would serve as part of some active or structural component) with no extra molecules on the loose to jam the works. Such a system would not be liquid or gas, as no molecules would move randomly, nor would it be a solid, in which molecules are fixed in place. Instead this new machine-phase matter would exhibit the molecular movements seen today only in liquids and gases as well as the mechanical strength typically associated with solids. Its volume would be filled with active machinery."
Drexler appears to be struggling towards the idea that the artificial molecular machines are like those of the living system, liquid crystalline with the texture of flesh (see main text). Living molecular machines are made up of at least twice their weight of ‘biological’ water – water that is an integral part of their structure and function. These molecular machines, densely packed and embedded in the liquid crystalline matrix runs in almost perfect cycles, drawing on coherent energy extracted and stored from metabolism. The living molecular machines basically borrow the coherent energy and return it only slightly degraded to the matrix. The efficiency of living molecular machines is such that they generate very little waste heat, which is why they can be packed so densely and work without burning out.
Of course, one of the biggest problems for artificial molecular machines, let alone self-replicating molecular machines, is the energy source. Another is energy dissipation – to get rid of the waste heat - neither of which Drexler has addressed. But there is a deeper problem.
The organism is run, in the ideal, on quantum coherence. And hence - this is the sting in the tail – the molecular machines cannot be individually controlled. Instead, the organism is a system of molecular democracy of distributed control. Each individual molecular machine operates with maximum freedom and is yet correlated with the whole.
What about "the most exciting goal" according to Drexler, "of the molecular repair of the human body"? Medical nanorobots that could destroy viruses and cancer cells, repair damaged structure, remove accumulated wastes from the brain and "bring the body back to a state of youthful health." Ah, the ultimate dream of immortality!
Unfortunately, our body’s immune system may well see these artificial molecular machines as foreign invaders and try to get rid of them, or worse, they might clog up the immune system for good.
Have they all gone stark raving mad and megalomaniac? Thankfully, there’s one lone voice of reason left from the IT revolutionaries.
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