/sci/ - Science & Math

>>3706534

He's right though. The best way to get to molecular manufacturing is having several mechanical, diamondoid arms moving from a supply of feedstock to a workspace in a regular manner. Having the robots in any configuration other than comfortably strapped down... Would imply fitting the entire disassembler, sorter, feedstock, computer, memory and assembler within the space of a few cubic microns. And that is not going to happen.

inb4 cells lololololol

2020: Robert Fretias dies in a car accident, effectively ending all nanotechnology research
2030: Ray Kurzweil turns 82, is deprived of life by an aneurysm in the aorta, is cryopreserved at Alcor.
2032: Ralph Merkle, who was still optimistic about getting funding for nanotechnology, dies and is cryopreserved.
2035: It's a time of great innovation and technological advancement... But with Merkle and Freitas dead, the word 'nanotechnology' has come to mean materials science and there's no-one left to pursue the dream of MNT.
2042: SIAI gets it's first researcher with an actual PhD.
2045: Still no mechanosynthesis.
2046: Eric Drexler dies.
2050: Still no mechanosynthesis.
2060: DIY genetics, still no mechanosynthesis.
2070: Still no mechanosynthesis.
2101: After decades of nothing, a kid with an atomic force microscope cracks diamondoid mechanosynthesis. Too late because the world has fallen into a dark age, so instead of starting the Diamond Age he becomes a warlord of the post-apocalyptic wastelands and lives a good life and gets laid a lot because the girls of the unwashed masses will do anything for a meal.