Drexler Clarifies Grey Goo Scenario

b00le writes "The BBC says that the scientist many regard as the father of nanotechnology has backed away from his famous claim that runaway nanomachines could turn the planet into 'grey goo'. Eric Drexler now says nanomachines that self-replicate exponentially are unlikely ever to enter widespread use. So that's all right, then, but he also said 'tiny machines would need close control' - which not everyone would agree with. I always imagined some kind of emergent behaviour would, er, emerge." Bill Joy is still suitably pessimistic.

Comments

Good

[grungebox]

I'm about to enter graduate school at Rice, specializing in nanoscience (like you can specialize in that broad an area!)...it's good to know I won't be grey goo-ed one day while in the lab.

Population Control

[artlu]

Animals have the ability to continously procreate until all resources are consumed, however, most don't. There is a type of population control that exists for most species, and even though humans have continously gained in population, we have only done so because of our knowledge to fending off population control diseases/disasters/etc.

Would machines follow this same type or universal standard of population control or would they just envelope every item they could?

Who knows, not me.

Anyway, stupid plug for a new website im working on, GroupShares.com. If you are into the stock market and want to see a live journal, etc, then check it out. Of course everything is free.

Thanks,
Aj

Re:Correction

[PhxBlue]

Can you people speak english?

Yes, they can speak English. At least some of the time, anyway. And in this case, they have it right--since "BBC" is a single (corporate) entity, the singular form of the verb (says) is appropriate.