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Why The Future Doesn't Need Us
Atec Февраль 29 2008 20:16:19
Книга только для ознакомления
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As Drexler explained:
"Plants" with "leaves" no more efficient than today's solar cells could out-compete real plants, crowding the
biosphere with an inedible foliage. Tough omnivorous "bacteria" could out-compete real bacteria: They could
spread like blowing pollen, replicate swiftly, and reduce the biosphere to dust in a matter of days. Dangerous
replicators could easily be too tough, small, and rapidly spreading to stop - at least if we make no preparation.
We have trouble enough controlling viruses and fruit flies.
Among the cognoscenti of nanotechnology, this threat has become known as the "gray goo problem." Though
masses of uncontrolled replicators need not be gray or gooey, the term "gray goo" emphasizes that replicators
able to obliterate life might be less inspiring than a single species of crabgrass. They might be superior in an
evolutionary sense, but this need not make them valuable.
The gray goo threat makes one thing perfectly clear: We cannot afford certain kinds of accidents with replicating
assemblers.
Gray goo would surely be a depressing ending to our human adventure on Earth,
far worse than mere fire or ice, and one that could stem from a simple laboratory
accident.6 Oops.
It is most of all the power of destructive self-replication in genetics,
nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) that should give us pause. Self-replication is
the modus operandi of genetic engineering, which uses the machinery of the cell
to replicate its designs, and the prime danger underlying gray goo in
nanotechnology
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