X-Message-Number: 15431
References: <>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 10:22:42 +0000
From: "Joseph Kehoe" <>
Subject: snippets

Nano advances

http://www.zyvex.com/Research/exponential.html

At Zyvex, we are taking the first steps on the journey into the small world of 
nanotechnology by developing manufacturing

architectures that should let us make huge numbers of miniature robotic arms, 
all working together to assemble miniature parts.
One approach we are pursuing is called exponential assembly.


Exponential assembly is a manufacturing architecture starting with a single tiny
robotic arm on a surface.

This first robotic arm makes a second robotic arm on a facing surface by picking
up miniature parts  

carefully laid out in advance in exactly the right locations so the tiny robotic
arm can find them  

and assembling them. The two robotic arms then make two more robotic arms, one 
on each of the two facing surfaces.

These four robotic arms, two on each surface, then make four more robotic arms. 
This process continues with the number

of robotic arms steadily increasing in the pattern 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc. 
until some manufacturing limit is reached

(both surfaces are completely covered with tiny robotic arms, for example). This
is an exponential growth rate,
hence the name exponential assembly.


climate problems...
could be bad news for long term political stability

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010122/wl/china_global_warming_1.html

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - In the most emphatic warning yet about the danger of 
global warming,

a meeting of scientists from 99 nations issued a report Monday that sharply 
increased projected

climate change blamed on air pollution and warned of drought and other 
disasters.

The report, meant to spur stalled world talks on curbing greenhouse gas 
emissions, said global
temperatures could rise by up to 10.5 degrees over the next century.


Turing stuff...


>If we knew beforehand just exactly what a person would do in his (or
>her) entire life, then we could indeed put together a picture of
>this person which would use up a fixed set of connections (not
>necessarily all N^2, but a fixed set).
>However we are not in such a situation when we consider the future
>of someone (including ourselves). The possible wirings still consist
>of 2^N possibilities. This even remains true toward the end of our
>lives, since unlike electrical systems, nerves change their connections.


The wiring does not have to change just the software implementing the 
connections and this is not a problem.

If we can simulate a nerve then we can simulate new connections. By looking at 
the state of the connections at any one time it should be easy to predict what 
new connections will arise.

>Our life continually inputs data from
>outside our brain, and without that input we'd basically go to sleep.


Wiring the simulation to get inputs from the outside world is a solved problem. 
Run the sim in a machine that looks like a human if you want and implement all 
five senses.  There is absolutely no problem here.  The sim. would need the 
outside world to work properly  but computers have been receiving inputs from 
the outside world for a number of years now!


>Part of our data input will always come from outside us, and we won't be able 
to predict it.
>Just as with single-processor computers, we cannot represent all the possible
>calculations one computer could perform without bringing in 2^N possibilities.


We don't need to predict it just process it as it arrives.  We do not need to 
work out all possible outcomes just the next one based on inputs from the 
outside world.

Joseph.

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