Thoughts On Nanotechnology About the coming nano-tech revolution..

[kaputnik 0]

Thoughts on Nanotechnology:

The future may be a lot closer than we may actually let ourselves be coaxed into believing. âTempus Fugitâ as they may say in Latin, âtime fliesâ faster as the ages progress. If you delve right into timelines youâll recognize the contraction of periods between when an idea is formed, technologies are developed and finally the original ideas are equated to actual real products. Back around 15,000 years ago, when human beings first began roaming the face of the planet in earnest, the brain developed at a frantic pace to keep in step with the new and ingenious uses people found for their bodies and mobile appendages. This meant that humans began using tools to hunt and in defense against predators; leaving a lot of time free for productive activities; since it took lesser time to actually carry out the basic survival chores.

Lets look at some historyâŚ

Enter fire! Back around 10,000 years ago (yes as close as that), human beings first started using fire for practical purposes like cooking and lighting in caves. Fire, infact, brought in a new dimension to light hours, during which productive activities may have been carried out. It meant that productive hours need not be restricted only to daylight, but, with fire, the night may too be utilized. The brain and body is forced to keep up with these developments and early humans adjusted to sleeping fewer hours and spent more time actively pondering.

The thing about having time to think is that, one tends to think about the future, about you and yours, about the tribe and about innovation. But time is critical, and since people in the early days needed to judge how long it took to get something done, they possibly correlated between the cycles of day and night, the passing of the various phases of the moon and the average length of oneâs life. They discovered two very important things; measuring time through a calendar, and, numbers and the ability to count. This meant that activities could be allocated specific periods to be completed within, all preferably well within oneâs lifetime so as to be able to enjoy the fruits of research and development.

Next came the wheel, the first ones possibly just plain logs used about 8,000 years ago; but the more well defined wells came into existence around Asia (Harappa and Mohinjodaro, and the Euphrates belt are examples), around 3,500 years back. This critical invention galvanized human progress, propelling travel, commerce, warefare and mechanics.

Fast forward to the modern world. The industrial revolution driven by the invention of the steam engine and the extensive use of coal, started in Britain between 1750 and 1850. Technological innovations earnestly began around 1900 with the onset of wide use of electrical power and the advantages in communication through telephone as well as radio. The two world wars followed with near magical leaps in technologically advanced products. The first computers appeared around the 1950âs. These were rather large, unimaginably slow machines, although highly advanced for the day and age they were unveiled. The very first desktop was called the âSimonâ.

Nearly all the computing power available for the launch of the first moon mission by the United States, may now be reflected in a mid-range desktop PC of today.
The future, so soon..??!!

The future, the very NEAR future I must add, will be the age of the Nano-machines, and of nanotechnology. Already the US is undertaking R&D to dress soldiers in combat uniforms that will be developed from the nano-fiber onwards. These would sense when a soldier is fatigued, and provide supplements through the skin, electrical impulses passed through the cloth to the soldier will enable faster reflexes; the outfit will provide field medical aid, would bunch up its nano-fiber material to form a proactive projectile proof material at nearly the speed of light on noticing a fast moving and possibly body damaging projectile, and, as an exo-skeleton would provide increased power (upto 4 times), of the soldiersâ strength. And this is just one use, a small one at that for nanotechnology. And all this between 2010 and 2015.

Nanotechnology is already in use in many modern day applications. Take for example the laser head that reads CDâs. Widely used and very easily overlooked technology.

What is nanotechnology??

To give you an idea about the scale, pluck a hair from your head. If youâve about averagely thick hair, the diameter of your hair (not the circumference and definitely not the length) would be between 90 and 100 nanometers. A carbon nano-tube, being manufactured in quantity now-a-days albeit a little expensively is 1 nanometer in diameter.

Nanotechnology is mechanics, biomechanics, electro-mechanics and any thing to do with construction and manipulation at the nano scale.

Not enough information is readily available that is unclassified and accessible to the common person at this stage on actual development of nanotechnology, but to give you an indication of how information flows, post innovation, lets take a few examples. Richard Fynman (you really must read the book â âSurely youâre joking Dr. Fynmanâ itâs hilarious), around 1955 had begun research into nanotechnology in earnest and had already made observations and publications as early as 1959. The SR-71 Blackbird, was doing in excess of Mach 3 in the early 1960âs over communist Russia and the general public became aware about itâs capabilities only in the mid 1980âs when the aircraft was de-commissioned. That is how information flows. Even if we compress timelines at the rate it takes to design increasingly higher performing computer chips, it would be a good ten years after actual military application that any nanotechnology developments would become commercially available. The way I figure it is that by 1920, weâd have the first onset of the full fledged nano-age.

And what can we expect�?



Visualize thisâŚ

Construction:
EBay is a little slow today, even though its 2025 and everyoneâs got terabyte per second internet connections. Your computer is larger than the older models, but you donât mind that since yours is a hybrid between a chip-based computing system and a quantum computer. The chip based part of the computer takes care of the vital components and sees to the general wellbeing of the unit, but the huge lunch box sized unit, although a bit embarrassing when your friends come over can accurately calculate weather patterns upto the hour a thousand years from now. Finally the page loads. The problem with the website is that the usage of the internet in transmitting gazillion bits of information across the planet every second was causing considerable gridlock on the infrastructure. The page youâre looking for has a âHome Fabrication Unit at the cost of your watchâ. The specifications define the unit as a low energy consuming one capable of generating its own material by scrubbing the local atmosphere off dust and other particles, thus gaining all the raw materials youâd require to entirely re-decorate your home. The unit would also accept any bits of scrap fed to it through the bio-processor, and use such scrap to gain manufacturing raw materials which were predefined carbon nanotubes, diamond spirals and silicon plates, all at the nano scale. And, included with the package is a starter kit of flexi-use nano-bots. The tiny robots could be programmed wirelessly through a hybrid computer like the one sitting on your desk to manufacture most articles for which designs could be generated. You smile to yourself and make a to-do note to download a few designs as a complete themed kit. You hit the order button and go to your kitchen to âdemandâ a cup of coffee from your food processing kitchen robo-maid. Your unit arrives in an hour. You enter your house plans into the design GUI application and download a most radical interior design from a home design website. You place the ânanobotâ package in place as your computer directs you, the Fabricator has a screen like unit that must be placed at the window for it to collect dust, smog particles and other pollution that most large cities around the world are full of. The nanobots will create more nanobots that will commence to fuse together to form strong, reliable, and comfortable aesthetic furniture. They would form walls, place electrical conduits, plumbing and take care of decorating; all according to plan. In three days, youâd be able to call your friends for your House warming party.

Earlier that month, before youâd purchased the spacious condo, youâd visited the building site where construction was still underway. The supervisor had shown you how construction was undertaken. Not very dis-similar to your Home Fabrication Unit, the licensed builder was using a building fabricator produced by a consortium of Japanese, Chinese, American and Indian companies. The unit would excavate material from directly under the site, break the soil and material down to its atomic level with energy from its fusion reactor and process these with a nano particle fabricator. Upto 30 floors were constructed per day. The old city was now nearly abandoned, since accommodation was available for purchase with 6 months worth of savings. In the new city, all transport was underground, with gardens and parks covering all the topsoil. Eden was being created.

Medicine:

The day before yesterday, just before youâd moved to your new apartment, youâd gone to visit your general practitioner whoâd injected you with a syringe full of medi-bots. These little robots were the new rave since they could give an accurate picture of the internal organs, visually as well as through radio telemetered information to the large medical diagnostic computers. The medi-bots would scrub arteries and veins off cholesterol deposits, and be ready for any required operative procedures the next day during the visit to the GP. Following this, the medi-bots would be instructed to disintegrate in batches of 1000 at a time so as not to overload the kidneys, but would continue to perform cell repair procedures till the very last one became inoperable. Longer life spans?

Rashid Ahmed

Interesting articles:
References:
http://www.virtualclassroom.net/tvc/internet/fire.htm
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
https://gitso-outage.oracle.com/thinkquest
http://inventors.about.com/od/wstartinventions/a/wheel.htm
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://jva.cs.iastate.edu/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
http://oxfordquantum.org/
http://www.lanl.gov/errors/unavailable.php
http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ (This is a must read)

[kaputnik 0]

Notice from vujsa:

Deleted two previous posts which were accidentally posted. On kaputnik's request. Please proof-read your posts in the future using the preview option.

Just came across this very interesting article at the National Geographic website, about using cultured amoeba and diatoms (very small organizms) to create prematerial with understood properties.

 

An idea I've had is based on the formation and durability of coral reefs. Based on the way polyps ( the tiny creatures that inhabit and of whose skeletal remains form corals) eat and their diet, it would in our day of modern bio-tech and bio engineering, be possible to create organizms very similar to polyps; which would consume a pre-mixed feed of essentials as well as other feed items aimed at froming specificly strong skeletons.

 

 

 

The breeding and reproductive cycles and nature of polyps are astounding. Most polyps have cells of both sexes and these little organizms can reproduce sexually (winthin the body of the creature) as well as asexually (without the body of the creature). So, based on the conditions of the environment polyps will syncronize the release of sperm and eggs to grow rapidly in population.

 

Now, how does all this apply to humanity as a whole??

 

People have bred various creatures over eons for many practical reasons - most commonly for food (such as poultry for eggs and meat; ranch farming for milk and meat etc..) So, by reflection, and noting 'human' (and this is bound to cause an uproar) behavior; it seems reasonable that we can cultivate various 'farms' of creatures that may be bred in vast populations - towards the common human good. Humans require as essentials - food, water, shelter (clothes and roofs) etc...

 

Visualize this - when you inflate a baloon, it creates a pretty vast space of 'mass' of air within it. It would be a similar situation if you inflate the baloon with water. Some baloons are made out of slightly tougher materials, that may be zipped at the seams and be inflated with air/water to attain predetermined shapes (there's a bunch of furniture you can buy at shops and off the internet that you can inflate and safely use for extended periods of time). Inflatable furniture could be mass produced (and it is ) cheaply - in the shape of houses, or modular structures...

 

Polyps modified with the aid of bio-tech science to utilize as food materials that will result in creating for themselves, super hardened shells (posibally carbon composites or graphite, possibly even diamond); and modified to reproduce under controlled conditions- rapidly will be cultured in farms as 'seed' "constructors.

 

 

 

At building sites, modular baloons are inflated with factory produced high quality food (for polyps) mixed in water as required by the polyps to grow at the most exponential rate.

 

Small sections of farm cultured 'live' coral is introduced within the confines of the modular structure. A slow stream of the quality food especially rich in the materials required for polyp reproduction and formation of super hardened skeletons is fed continously through the inflated modular structure. The coral begins to grow and will continue to grow at a geometric rate (2 polyps creating 500 - 500 polyps creating 10000...) and very soon, the entire modular structure, of stiffened material contains a shaped coral of superhardened material (from the skeletal structure of the polyps).

 

The modular covering is drained off 'food' materials and is continously rinsed to clean the coral of the now decaying organic matter (the rinse water is continually scrubbed to recycle the water as well as to get nutrients from the cleaning liquid to be sent to factories that manufacture the polyp 'food' liquid. Then the created structure is bathed in chemicals that will retard any growth of any other creatures (like mice at home, cocoroaches burrowing in etc). Next, warm air will be introduced to dry out the structure.

 

In very short periods, there'll be blocks of usable buildings which will only need a coating of primer and paint; some wiring and piping - and viola..!! Cheap, mass produced housing for the billions of people around the world.

The advantages of using a system such as this is that the modular inflatable units are reusable and easily transportable to remote locations.

 

What is required off the emerging bio-tech industry is to concentrate on engineering and creating minute creatures, that, through their cultivation, bring about dramatic lifestyle changes for humanity as a whole. For it is only when the basics are easily and cheaply provided for every single of the worlds humans, that there'll be absolute peace.

 

 

[lesmizzie 0]

I hope that nanotechnology will help us instead of hurt us. For instance, maybe if they put nano cameras into the bloodstream or any other places in the body, maybe cancer can be detected at an earlier time. Problems of the body would be more easily found, such as tumors to the liver and other such organs that you cannot see from the outside. I think that nanotechnology is fascinating. I hope that it helps the medical field and is used more in the future.

[Adwodon 0]

This kind of stuff really does add now limits to your imagination.Imagine bots in your brain, feeding directly of nerve cells, allowing us to essentially read thoughts and transmit them. Telepathy?Imagine that your thirsty... your bots pick it up, send a message to your fridge (or whatever) and the next thing you know there is a glass of your favourite drink on the table next to you.It could be possible to have bots in your stomach, which could consume excess food matter, a cure for obseity?!The one I prefer is imagine your perfect game, and your bio xbox picks it up and designs it for you :rolleyes:Imagine having AI, truely life like, imagine cortana from Halo, running your house, no need for accountants hehe... All sounds very nice, makes me happy to be only 18 hehe

[Mahanon 0]

Nanotech could revolutionize everything that we know, when you think about it Nanotech could be used in many different applications, it could be used to cure illnesses, clean the enviroment, repair the human body,they could probably be used in construction, and even Terraform a planet that would be so cool, maybe they could even extend the lifespan of humans, that would be super coolie.....ahem back to it. The problem with it though is that it could be used to create weapons, viruses, all kinds of bad stuff, but I think the possitive outways the negative.Nanotech is coming sooner or later embrace it or hate it, I say bring it on!!!!!!!!