Sometimes one wishes that scientists were given a little more free time to read fiction.Then they would understand why THIS is a Bad Idea.
Programmable matter... robots that can reassemble themselves. Hammers that become wrenches. Machines that can act like proteins.
The mind boggles. In five minutes I can come up with a list of about 100 fun and destructive things to do with a programmable protein. My word! Think of the plagues! Think genetic espionage! Think world domination through altering proteins in the brain!
And that took no effort at all.
There's a story in this.
Several in point of fact. And a few that have already been done.
Happy Plotting!
Scientists *do* read science fiction. It's where they get all their ideas. ;)
ReplyDeleteScientists already have a term for nanotech run amok: Grey Goo. It's what will happen if they, for example, launch a nanobot to fix a cancer and the nano slips a cog and starts self-replicating...thus continuing an infinitum until the world is covered with the "grey goo" of nanobots.
ReplyDeleteMmmm, gimme some of that old time paranoia...and a zillion-fold helping to the techies who are producing this stuff.