Since I just now learned about that link, I haven't read the book to know, but I have always been interested in finding out if the ability to create smaller and smaller machines is possible by having an outer machine which manufactures an inner, smaller, copy of itself, apply the process of induction, define the termination criteria, ..., profit!
Or, maybe I'm thinking about the problem all wrong -- it's not the actual construction machinery that's the problem, it's providing the input materials to each step (gears, levers, fasteners, wiring(?), etc)
There's a Factorio-clone hiding in this problem ...
The issue is that scaling does not produce linear effects as you go down (or up) for a number of reasons. What works at the meter scale doesn’t work at the millimeter scale, which doesn’t work at the micrometer scale, etc.
So you end up having to learn an experiment at a more and more difficult to access scale to figure out how to make something actually work.
the reality is that it turned out to be easier to make things with lithography, and we don't need to pantograph our way to the bottom (whew!).
Many cell phones now have sensors that are mems-based, built using lithography (accelerometers being the best example). In many senses, we've started to achieve the goals of the book.
I did enjoy Diamond Age, maybe I should reread it! It was the first time I had ever heard of "reversible computing" and (ahem) I still don't understand it, but it's good to know such a thing exists
I'm about 175 pages into that PDF and am now sorry that I drew attention to it. I was beguiled by the name recognition and the snazzy title, but I find the text filled with hand-wavery and aspirational thinking, and it also seems to focus a lot more on DNA than I would have expected
I also find even their aspirations suspicious that any such machinery could ever possibly exist to just tweezer atoms around like marbles and voila gold from lead!
> I also find even their aspirations suspicious that any such machinery could ever possibly exist to just tweezer atoms around like marbles
We can already push atoms around with macro-scale actuators that have nano-scale accuracy (which is clumsy, to be sure), and there is little doubt that the hardware to do so will get smaller and more capable over time.
Thanks for the recommendation.
That cover though, is that topology specific to a coronavirus or do more viruses share it? Especially since the Pfizer/Biontech and Moderna vaccines deploy nano-particles for delivering their payload.
Since I just now learned about that link, I haven't read the book to know, but I have always been interested in finding out if the ability to create smaller and smaller machines is possible by having an outer machine which manufactures an inner, smaller, copy of itself, apply the process of induction, define the termination criteria, ..., profit!
Or, maybe I'm thinking about the problem all wrong -- it's not the actual construction machinery that's the problem, it's providing the input materials to each step (gears, levers, fasteners, wiring(?), etc)
There's a Factorio-clone hiding in this problem ...