X-Message-Number: 21071
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 08:31:51 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #20820 - #20827

Hi again (yes, this is in a sense a late reply):

For Bob Ettinger and Kennita Watson:

Yes, devices with nanosized parts would certainly play a role in
our repair. But when you bring in a computer (even if it too is
made with nanosized parts) then you are no longer operating on
a nanoscale. You are really talking about a repair device
which uses nanosized parts.

It is the same with "nano-macro". We should not forget that we
are REPAIRING something for which the correct structure is
not known. To find that correct structure the nanodevices
examining it must somehow join together to get a complete view
of where everything is, and then a computer (which might even
be composed of many of these same nanodevices linked together)
would work out where everything SHOULD be as distinct from
where it IS.

As I said when I began my discussion, I'm not talking about the
problem of putting together something when we know where all
its parts should go. I'm talking about the problem of putting
together something which is broken for which we don't know
where the parts go. The first problem could be done with 
independent nanosized devices; the second cannot.

We can fool ourselves by deciding that everything can be done
on a molecular level. Only in the root sense that we are all
composed of molecules (as are our machines) is this true. Any
repair machine will not consist simply of a set of nanomachines;
they must be linked together and so form a much larger device.

             Best wishes and long long life to all,

                 Thomas Donaldson

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