Joy's fears about the self-replicating nature of nanotechnology are justified. He's afraid a single mistake in a nanite (I don't know if that is the correct word) could explode into something dangerous. It might seem paranoid to some, but it could reasonably happen.
For example, while testing the nanite certain pieces of functionality could be turned off. (Testing a hardware-software system is often easier to do this way, I'm told.) After the testing, the tester might forget to turn them back on. Depending on what function was inadvertently turned off, anything could happen. What makes these kinds of mistakes especially dangerous in nanotechnology is the self-replication. One mistake can end up in in a billion or more nanites in a very short amount of time. As the systems embedded in the nanites become more complex, testing will become more complex. Things will be missed just because the testing can't be sufficent and "cost-effective." Intel ran into this problem with the error in the Pentium's floating point unit.
But all these fears aside, we must proceed with nanotechnology. We cannot let fear rule the course technological development. Otherwise, we would still be living in caves. What we should do is devlop new methods for developing and testing nanotechnology while devloping the technology itself. It will be difficult, but nothing ever worth doing is easy.
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Joy's fears about the self-replicating nature of nanotechnology are justified. He's afraid a single mistake in a nanite (I don't know if that is the correct word) could explode into something dangerous. It might seem paranoid to some, but it could reasonably happen.
For example, while testing the nanite certain pieces of functionality could be turned off. (Testing a hardware-software system is often easier to do this way, I'm told.) After the testing, the tester might forget to turn them back on. Depending on what function was inadvertently turned off, anything could happen. What makes these kinds of mistakes especially dangerous in nanotechnology is the self-replication. One mistake can end up in in a billion or more nanites in a very short amount of time. As the systems embedded in the nanites become more complex, testing will become more complex. Things will be missed just because the testing can't be sufficent and "cost-effective." Intel ran into this problem with the error in the Pentium's floating point unit.
But all these fears aside, we must proceed with nanotechnology. We cannot let fear rule the course technological development. Otherwise, we would still be living in caves. What we should do is devlop new methods for developing and testing nanotechnology while devloping the technology itself. It will be difficult, but nothing ever worth doing is easy.