X-Message-Number: 21241
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 18:34:48 -0500
From: Francois <>
Subject: Respirocytes and other nanotech enhancement

Nanotechnology promises to do remarquable things. The example of
respirocytes keeping a man alive for hours even though his heart no longer
beats is certainly impressive. However, I don't think that merely upgrading
our biological organisms is the way to go. Last night, I watched Terminator
2 again, and I was even more impressed by the T1000 terminator than I was
the first time. For those among you who don't know what a T1000 is, it is
described in the movie as a mimetic polyalloy, and depicted as a shiny blob
of liquid metal that can shape itself into anything, usually impersonating a
human, repairing itself almost instantly, resistant to heat, cold and
corrosives, and even surviving being frozen solid in liquid nitrogen and
then being shattered in a million pieces with a gun shot. The melting pieces
simply flowed back together and the T1000 reformed itself. Of course, it was
not indestructible and was ultimately disposed of by being plunged in a
crucible full of molten steel.

Well, this was only a movie, but something like the T1000 can probably be
designed and built with nanotechnology. Uploading one's mind in such a
device would make one virtually immortal. It would certainly be far more
practical than mere enhanced flesh and blood, allowing one to adapt to any
Earth environment and a great many of the environments existing in the solar
system, including the pure vacuum of space. For instance, such a body would
have easily survived the Challenger explosion or the Columbia's breakup on
reeintry. And, as a bonus, you don't even have to give up the psychological
comfort of the human shape. This is just a thought of course, and maybe not
a very serious one, but it does give an idea of how different from us
humanity may become in the next few centuries.

Francois
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No lifespan shorter than eternity is acceptable
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