From: David Jacovkis Halperin (david@vega.uab.es)
Date: Wed May 15 2002 - 10:11:46 MDT
El mié, 15-05-2002 a las 00:24, Justin Corwin escribió:
> It's always good to have materials scientists. There was a discussion a
> little while ago here about a universal fabrication facility, code-named
> Santa's Workshop.
I've been digging the SL4 archives, and found that thread (among many
other interesting ones, I read so fast and yet leave so many things for
another day).
>You in the know, how likely is such a facilty? Is
> programmable universal fabrication possible with standard engineering? Would
> it cost a fortune? Should I wait until universal assemblers before putting
> my plan to rule the world into action?
As far as I know, standard engineering (techniques used today in mass
production of micro-anything) is pretty far from that, mainly due to
nanoscale-specific obstacles (surface effects, short-range forces,
quantic effects...); on the other hand a great effort (meaning many $)
is being put both on new specific techniques (self-assembling stuff,
quantum dots, nanotubes...) and in more basic investigation of the
nanoscale physics, so in order to conquer the world it would be wise to
wait for a few years, until you can set free your own basement-made
nanothings. Even then, I think that the idea of a really universal
fabrication utility is quite optimistic.
Regards,
David
-- David Jacovkis Halperin Grup de Física dels Materials I Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 08193 Bellaterra Spain http://vega.uab.es Tel: (34) 93 581 1481 Fax: (34) 39 581 2155 Jabber: memnoch@jabber.at / ICQ: 103428664 / MSN: memnoch@inicia.es
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