X-Message-Number: 12774
From: "George Smith" <>
References: <>
Subject: Breakthroughs, Protests and Reading the Newspaper.
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 1999 12:47:33 -0800

A few points on recent postings:

(1) I consider the July 20, 1999 nanotech breakthrough to be a breakthrough
because a breakthrough is when the objections to a new technology being
"possible" are quashed by something which overcomes those objections.  When
the replicators are finally built that will be the nanotech explosion.  Just
as fax machines appeared in a 5-week period internationally linking
businesses, the nanotech explosion will leave us gasping in its rapid
spread.

(2) Once you know the "recipe" (Thank you, John Clark.  I still prefer
"blueprint") for building the human body from the smallest molecule to the
finished structure, it is easy to see how small roving nano repair devices
could spot a deviant protein molecule and replace it with one which is
correct.  Objections that this is complex with billions of possible
combinations ignore the concept that (a) the blueprint CONSISTS of those
combinations and (b) that's what the nanotech computer breakthrough of July
20,1999 is all about - the creation of a new computer billions of times
faster than our best silicon computers today ...and on a nano scale.

(3) The flurry of emails I received proclaiming studied ignorance on the
reality of the July 20, 1999 nanotech breakthrough included a complete
evasion regarding the previously posted (Cryonet) November 1, 1999 Yale news
release (again below) in which the Yale researchers DEMONSTRATED a single
molecule computer memory.  I will not bother to mention the "smart dust"
(gargantuan!) 2mm diameter sensors which can float in the air) Defense
Department / U of Cal Berkeley news report last month, nor the announcement
of an enzyme which makes the creation of hydrogen cheap, thereby overturning
the current centralized petroleum industry (killing even the need for solar,
fusion or alternative power sources).  These are simply publicly published
news reports on research breakthroughs and implementations.

Ladies and gentlemen, you may declaim all you wish, but the work is now
being engineered by the wealthiest organizations in the world (the ones you
pay taxes to).  Those who protest the problems cannot be solved, need to
read the newspaper!  Folks, it is happening as you read this!

George Smith
www.cryonics.org

YALE News Release

CONTACT: Karen Peart (203) 432-1326

For Immediate Release: November 1, 1999

Yale Research Team First to Describe Molecular-Sized Memory --Discovery has
Implications for Drastically Reducing Cost of Computer Memory

New Haven, Conn. -- Computer storage capacity can be vastly increased using
a molecular memory based on a single molecule, a research team from Yale and
Rice Universities has discovered.

The discovery attacks one of the major problems facing the microelectronics
industry -- cost. Detailed results of the study will be presented at the
International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 6, 1999.

The tremendous improvements and reduced cost seen over the last three
decades in electronics -- computers, telecommunications, multimedia -- will
eventually stop because circuits cannot be made smaller economically, says
Mark Reed, Harold Hodgkinson Professor of Engineering and Applied Science
and chair of electrical engineering at Yale.

"We've demonstrated a memory element the size of a single molecule," said
Reed, principal investigator on the paper. "This is the ultimate in size
that one can achieve in microminaturization. The fabrication of the
molecular memory was done using a method called 'self-assembly,' which has
the potential to dramatically reduce cost."

The single molecule memory effect is more robust in storing information than
conventional silicon memory, which is typically 'dynamic random access
memories' (DRAM). The single molecule memory has a life approximately one
million times longer than DRAM, which is not capable of holding stored
charges for long.

"With the single molecule memory, all a general-purpose ultimate molecular
computer now needs is a reversible single molecule switch," said Reed. "I
anticipate we will see a demonstration of one very soon."

Papers presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting represent the
world's leading applied research in electronics. As such, the papers give
important clues about where electronics technology will be three-to-five
years from now. The meeting runs from December 5-8, 1999.

The research team consisted of Reed and graduate student Jia Chen in Yale's
electrical engineering department; and Professor James Tour and graduate
student Adam Rawlett of the Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanoscale
Science and Technology at Rice University.

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