X-Message-Number: 12727
From: 
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 22:30:40 EST
Subject: automobile repair

A recent post said something to the effect that nanotech repair of badly 
damaged people seems far-fetched, since we currently don't even have 
automatic machinery to repair a smashed automobile, an allegedly easier 
problem.

But repairing a smashed auto with current art is NOT easier than repair of 
frozen people with future art. The analogy doesn't hold up, because the 
damage to the car is not on the same scale as the capabilities of present 
machinery and programs.

A better analogy would be using present or near-future art to put back 
together a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle with large pieces. Present-day 
industrial machinery CAN do work somewhat similar to that. Macro-puzzle, 
macrotech; nano-puzzle, nanotech. 

As for sufficiently complex control programs, to deny that they will be 
available is to draw a line in the sand near low tide and say to the ocean, 
"Thus far only." 

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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