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Bio-nano bots

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Mon, 2013-01-07 17:15

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

Bio-nano bots

I was listening to a podcast on Singularity 1 on 1 and also reading a previous post in Adventure Vignettes about Jellysuits, and this got me wondering. If nano technology is at a certain point in EP where we can literally manipulate matter on the nano level, would it not be possible to manufacture biological nanobots on the same scale? The effect would essentially be similar to ribosomes within cells, and active growth virii/fungi to create and grow bio-mechanical devices such as Jellysuits and other living organisms, even weapons. Is this even feasible?

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Mon, 2013-01-07 18:51

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

I'm not sure what weapons you

I'm not sure what weapons you may be thinking of but "wet tech" nano is a part of EP. Look at; healing pods, medichines, most implants, forced growth cloning ect.

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Mon, 2013-01-07 19:00

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

OK, but that is still, at

OK, but that is still, at least it feels like, synthetic nano-technology. Little nanites made of silicon, gold and titanium, or whatever rare earth elements are needed. I'm thinking more along the lines of nanites made from calcium and potassium, that essentially synthesize life, like a virus or bacteria. But to the end of growing something biomechanical, like a full body exo-suit, or a kinetic weapon, or even a space ship. And each bio-nanite is essentially a cell, or smaller, and the process is completely biological.

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Mon, 2013-01-07 23:20

Chase-san

Well if you want to be highly

Well if you want to be highly technical, both the Basic Biomods and Clean Metabolism bioware augmentation are partly of that sort. But I think you are more wanting `grown technology`. While doesn't exist mostly because it is far more efficient to use the nearest Cornucopia Machine. Also, biological systems have the problem of upkeep and the requirement of a specific set of conditions for operation (usually).

Tue, 2013-01-08 13:51

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

OK, so 'growth technology'.

OK, so 'growth technology'. Granted it may not be efficient, is it plausible considering the setting?

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Tue, 2013-01-08 17:18

Chase-san

Grown, rather then growth.

Grown, rather then growth. The short of it is, yes its possible. But why oh why is the main question. It is easier, cheaper, faster and a great deal more efficient to use the normal stuff. Now the TITANS probably experimented with it to a point. But to make say, a gun. You need some way for the gun to get the matter it needs to fire (water, solids, toxins, etc), and a way to produce energy. For example, humans do both mainly by eating (but we also breath). I am sure you are aware of the downsides of that. There are many other methods, but almost everything has its downsides. Grown Technology is not super technology, or even superior technology. In fact it is generally the exact opposite in the terms of the EP setting. If you can control molecules with nano machines, not even certain bacteria can out perform them anymore.

Tue, 2013-01-08 17:28

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

It is the main question

It is the main question because I was curious. Efficiency or no, I would still like to know if it is possible, whether or not you have to feed your jellysuit with this attached railgun arm titanium capsules for its metallic strata is not the question. Can you grow a jellysuit with a railgun arm using a gene-hacked smart virus/bacteria? That is the question.

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Tue, 2013-01-08 23:28

OneTrikPony OneTrikPony's picture

Prophet710 wrote: I'm

Prophet710 wrote:
I'm thinking more along the lines of nanites made from calcium and potassium,

That is *partly* a definition of wet-tech. (with the caveat that we're speaking of my current understanding) With wet-tech we're basically talking about proteins and, usually, some type of carbohydrate metabolism. EP tech is past the point where you talk about carbon *or* silicon life because it's all carbon as far as processing and memory is concerned. Most biological tech like; bio-ware, implant nano, healing vats, etc. is going to use a mix of wet and dry tech. There really won't be much of a line between the two because building proteins will only determine what type of "fingers" your nano assemblers have. Wet-tech will come to be defined as the family of nano that is designed to interface with the chemistry of biological systems, regardless of it's own base chemistry. If you're looking for self replicating, self suficient, bio systems those would be the domain of the TITANs, not because transhumans don't know how but because they aren't stupid enough to create something like that again... and that's what firewall is for. Wiki Grey Goo. If you're talking about some type of seed nano that you can drop on an asteroid and come back later to find a... something interesting pseudo-life; that's almost possible, see Protean Swarms, and Meat hab in EPcore, and also Hamilton Cylinders in EPcore and Panopticon and Rimward.

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Mea Culpa: My mode of speech can make others feel uninvited to argue or participate. This is the EXACT opposite of what I intend when I post.

Wed, 2013-01-09 13:45

Prophet710 Prophet710's picture

What I'm looking for is more

What I'm looking for is more like a packet, full of proteins and minerals that you can plop on the ground and it will grow something like a biological exo-suit, like the Jellysuits. Or growing an arsenal of weapons in a greenhouse like facility.

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"And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes. And slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against us."

Thu, 2013-01-10 04:20

#10

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

"Wet" nanotech is definitely

"Wet" nanotech is definitely a thing, but people in EP probaboy don't notice it much. It is a bit like analog electronics - it is everywhere, but most of the stuff you think of seems to be digital. Similarly nanotech in EP seems to be all "dry" inorganic nanosystems, but actually there are plenty of wet nanosystems when you look closely. Historically, I would not be surprised if the EPverse developed nanotech from advanced biotechnology. Biotech seems to have had a longer history in the backstory. In the real world many nanotech people (Eric Drexler included) seem to think that using the already existing biological tools - enzymes, DNA, cells - to make nanosystems is a great start for bootstrapping the technology. Just check out DNA origami here, here and here. Once you have your floppy tools on the nanoscale you can use them to make better and more precise tools, which help make even better tools, and so on. At some point precise, inorganic nanotech became efficient enough that it started to have big and obvious effects. At this point most users forgot about the wet messy stuff. But it is still there as an interface. Perhaps the most extreme example of wet nanotech is biomorph brains. Essentially the only way to get the explanations of downloading egos into them is that they are loaded with nanotech that allow them to reformat totally. I also expect that most medical and biotech applications make use of sensor and actuator nanomachines embedded in the tissues to control things.

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