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Nanomachines: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:cit Smoky The Nanobot.png|link=Grey Goo|
{{quote|''"Industrial Grade Nano-Paste, Planet's most valuable commodity, can also be one of its most dangerous. Simply pour out several canisters, slide in a programming transponder, and step well away while the stuff cooks. In under an hour the nano will use available materials to assemble a small factory, a hovertank, or enough impact rifles to equip a regiment."''
|'''Col. Corazon Santiago - "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"''', ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]''}}
In Latin, ''nanus'' means "dwarf". In science, the prefix ''nano-'' means "one billionth" of something. Nanotechnology is technology on a scale of 1-100 nanometers (1 nanometer being one billionth of a meter.)
For a long scale of sizes see e.g. [http://www.falstad.com/scale/ here]. But of what's relevant to nanoscale construction - a hydrogen atom is about <ref>on this scale things don't ''look'' blurry, they ''actually are'' quite blurry</ref> 0.1 nanometers across, ribosomes <ref>the part of a cell that builds proteins to received arbitrary data</ref> are around 20 (prokaryotic) to almost 30 (eukaryotic) nm long; [https://web.archive.org/web/20160809135552/http://classes.midlandstech.edu/carterp/courses/bio225/chap04/lecture2.htm bacteria] are in range of 200-2000 nm; visible light has a wavelength of 400-800 nm, a human cell nucleus is about 1700 <ref>it holds [https://web.archive.org/web/20160216134617/http://bitesizebio.com/8378/how-much-information-is-stored-in-the-human-genome/ about 1.5 Gb]] worth of raw data - but note that it's ''the whole'' storage unit (though there's also another vital, but self-contained unit - in mitochondria), and in a form optimized for several uses and, shall we say, viable level of resilience, not for sheer density</ref>, and a human hair is about 100,000 nm wide. Which gives a good idea of limitations and complexity involved - and raises a question of at which point you have a nanorobot if you start with "cyborgizing" some bacteria.
Nanotechnology has become an all-purpose [[A Wizard Did It|magic]] substitute for soft science fiction and sci-fi-flavored fantasy. Nano is the latest [[Sci Fi Name Buzzwords]]; it is the new pseudo-Greek for [[Phlebotinum Du Jour|phlebotinum]]. Nanotech supplies a myriad of exciting powers with a satisfying patina of plausibility.
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Note that real-life physics puts constraints on what nanomachines could accomplish; for instance, without some source of energy, they will just sit there being molecules, or at best work veeeery slowly using ambient energy. But most writers [[Did Not Do the Research|rarely study the subject in any detail]]; it's easier to just use them as [[Green Rocks]] that can do anything the plot requires.
One reasonably common science-fiction scenario involves nanomachines being programmed to build copies of themselves using materials in their environment. If not stopped, such nanobots could theoretically grow exponentially, turning all available material on Earth into more nanobots and ending life as we know it—this is known as the "[[Grey Goo]]" scenario. Some scientists (and noted homeopathy fan, HRH The Prince of Wales) have expressed concern that this scenario could actually happen in real life, although most consider it extremely [https://web.archive.org/web/20131025044513/http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/indepth/19648 unlikely].
Because it is so powerful, in settings where science is ''inherently'' bad expect nanotech to be right up there on the [[Scale of Scientific Sins]].
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Nanites themselves will usually either be [[Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence|dumb as bricks]], or [[Hive Mind|networked into a fully sentient mass]]. Some works may invoke [[Mechanical Evolution]] to make the nanomachines smarter/better/deadlier.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* The Otome from ''[[Mai-Otome]]'' receive their powers via nanomachine injections; they self-destruct when the female body's [[Virgin Power|exposed to semen.]]
* The series ''[[Kiddy Grade]]'' bases a lot of technology on "Nano-mist"—a fog made up of trillions of nano-scale machines, which can achieve amazing effects—from keeping a 64 thousand kilometer long starship from collapsing under its own mass, to creating a barrier, to repairing damage, to [[terraform]]ing a planet. Also known as [[wikipedia:Utility fog|utility fog]].
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* In ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' exposure to terraforming nanomachines had an interesting effect on humans born on Mars. "Image Feedback System" Nanomachines were also used to interface with various machinery. On Mars, IFS nanomachines were required for pretty much any heavy equipment, but on Earth they served only as the [[Unusual User Interface]] for [[Humongous Mecha]] and other military vehicles. This led to Martian civilian Akito getting a lot of flak from [[The So-Called Coward|Earth-natives who assumed he was a military deserter]], and eventually getting [[The Call Knows Where You Live|press-ganged]] into piloting.
* ''[[Getter Robo]]'' [[Hand Wave|hand waves]] its [[Transforming Mecha]] in the Armageddon OVA by attributing the transformations to nanomachines.
* ''[[Turn A Gundam
** And they allow teleportation, regeneration and more.
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00|Gundam 00]]'' uses nanomachines to explain why the crew of Ptolemaios can stay in space for extended periods of time and not suffer bone density loss and so on. They are also the explanation, together with genetic modification, on why Innovades like Tieria do not age.
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*** If it collects substances that inevitably and spontaneously explode into fragments far too energetic to contain on its scale, it ''needs'' massive redundancy.
* Viluy from ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' attacks with nanomachines. {{spoiler|After one of Sailor Moon's attacks causes them to malfunction, they turn on their creator.}}
* Yami from ''[[To
** As expected of an Eve-expy.
** And now Yami has a 'younger sister', Mea Kurosaki with the same powers, presumably from the same source.
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==
* ''[[The Authority]]'' - Authority member The Engineer replaced all of her blood with nanomachines. She can [[Green Lantern Ring|create nearly anything with these]], from [[Arm Cannon]]s to [[Me's a Crowd|duplicates of herself]]. This being ''[[The Authority]]'', many of the implications of these powers are investigated.
* During Grant Morrison's ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' run, Cassandra Nova attacked the team on a cellular level with nanosentinels.
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* The magic behind virtual reality in ''[[Kimmie 66]]''.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* The last gasp of the remaining members of the American bloc of the Collective in ''[[The Secret Return of Alex Mack]]'' is an attempt at a nanobot-based plague which goes [[Grey Goo|"worst case"]].
* In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fic ''[[The Arithmancer]]'', Hermione Granger creates a magical nanite weapon that she calls [[Narnia|"The Deplorable Word"]], and which she uses to defeat Bellatrix Lestrange at the climax of the story.
* Used in the [[Phlebotinum Du Jour]] and [[Magic From Technology]] senses of the trope in the [[Mega Crossover]] ''[[My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character]]'', and usually supplied by [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Washuu-chan]]. Nanotech has been used to give multiple characters [[Heal Thyself|ridiculously fast medical treatment with a side-order of life extension]].
== Films ==
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* When used as directed, the nanobots on the salvage ship in ''[[Friday the 13th (film)]]'' can heal wounds and restore tissue damaged by cryogenic freezing. They can also be used to rebuild a shot-to-living-hell psycho killer into a [[Nigh Invulnerable]] cyborg. ...Yay?
* Nanomachines are used in the ''[[I, Robot (film)|I Robot]]'' movie to "execute" problem robots.
* In the remake of ''[[The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951 film)|The Day the Earth Stood Still]]'' nano-insects ([[Grey Goo|grey-goo]] style) {{spoiler|[[Kill All Humans]]}}.
* ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'' was the first time the Borg were shown using nanotech as an assimilation tool (see below under Live Action TV).
* The [[MacGuffin]] in ''[[Ballistic
* ''[[Transformers Film Series]]'' - According to [[All There in the Manual|The Official Movie Guide]], Protoforms are made up of densely packed nanomachines. This is the semi-official [[Hand Wave]] for any transformation "cheats" in the films and where, for example, the rubber for Optimus' tires comes from.
* ''[[G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]]'' features the nanites, originally created for medical intents and later weaponized (sometimes ''with medical intents'', for creating [[Super Soldier]] [[Elite Mooks]] who had a minor [[Healing Factor]] and [[Brainwashed and Crazy|parts of their brains destroyed to become fearless]]). And seems like [http://gijoe.wikia.com/wiki/Nanomites they already existed] in a [[G.I. Joe]] comic.
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* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' and its sequels use nanomachines for ''everything'', from transmissions to healing bleeding wounds to {{spoiler|aiding in a fake possession}}.
** [[Parrot Exposition|Nanomachines?]]
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty|Metal Gear Solid 2]]'', Raiden actually has all of his ''blood'' replaced with ''synthetic blood teaming with nanites''. Never mind the actual viability of that particular gruesome mashup, this is what allows him to interact wirelessly with nerds. Uh, nodes. This is actually perfectly viable, or at least it should be in the next few decades. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100420041524/http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=
* Vanilla H's healing ability in the ''[[Galaxy Angel (video game)|Galaxy Angel]]'' games comes from nanomachines. This works on both ships (her Angel Wing, Harvester, is a living nanomachine colony) and people (with her pet, a catlike living [[Lost Technology]]). Vanilla is one of the very few people that can pull this off, and became an [[Emotionless Girl]] as a side effect of honing her skills. Nano-Nano Pudding, from the later games, is another living [[Lost Technology]], this time a [[Catgirl]]. Like Vanilla's pet, she too is constructed from nanomachines.
* In the ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'' anime, none of this is mentioned at all, and Vanilla's powers may or may not come from a magical bead.
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* ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]''. All over the place at higher levels. Several technologies have to do with the stuff (Nanominiaturization, Nanometallurgy, and Industrial Nanorobotics being the coolest-named), most of which give you some pretty cool stuff (and allow you to build carriers and submarines for the first time for some reason).
** On one hand, upon researching Industrial Nanorobotics, you hear an excerpt from one of Miriam's screeds against new technology:
{{quote|Already we have turned all of our critical industries, all of our material resources, over to these...things...these lumps of silver and paste we call nanorobots. And [[
** On the other hand, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKcEwUcVBHs Santiago's opinion on the subject]. On another note, the video and accompanying voiceover [[Shown Their Work|indicate that, as usual, the developers did the research]]: the bots are networked, seem to draw power from their canisters, and have to get their raw material from somewhere (the video shows them devouring a battlefield, including a [[Nightmare Fuel|dead body's hand]], to make one hovertank).
* ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' uses Nanotech to explain the existence of hitpoints. After a set point in the first game, the Nanotech can be upgraded to increase the health of Ratchet.
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* The Necris from the ''[[Unreal]]'' series are humans who had all their blood replaced with Nanoblack, a "black goo" of nanomachines. The Necris are technically [[The Undead|undead]] (as the name implies), since Nanoblack is harmful to living organisms and the blood transfusion only works on dead people.
* ''[[Iji]]'' uses nanotechnology for everything. All the enemy soldiers and Iji herself use nano to enhance their movement and protect their bodies. Also, their "nanoguns" can shapeshift their internal components to act as any kind of weapon and assemble projectiles inside the barrel.
* The entire ''[[Wild
* The GenSelect Device, from ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander IV]]'', was weaponized Nanomachines designed to eliminate anyone with "inferior" genes.
* All of the ''[[Red Faction]]'' games feature nanotechnology, primarily as plot points. Used quite realistically in the first and third games; not so much in the second.
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* In ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' nanomachines are almost omnipresent, and several Story Arcs have featured them heavily. Note that they generally are of very specific limited use and/or act as a part of large and complex systems. The types that can survive in the open at all still have heat capacity and resistance to radiation reasonable for their size - hardened ones are vacuum-capable but all are killed if anyone fires in their general direction anything from a powerful searchlight and up. Or if they run into "antiseptic", like [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2007-09-11 anti-nannotic film].
** "Nanny-cams", bugs that are dispensed from a squirt-gun. While devices on the scale of light wavelength obviously can't use ray optics, it's the right size for antenna arrays.
** Medical. Regeneration vats are awesome, but they include external control and support
** "Blood-nannies" - self-sustaining swarms of medical nanobots controlled by implanted microcomputers, sometimes interfaced to the user's brain, as explained [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2011-03-08 here]... of course, implanting stuff in the brain is made safer by using yet another nanobot system to do all the cable-work. Uncommon at best.
** Weaponized nanites - not much good for an open battle, but a very nasty assassination weapon. They are targeted (for example, eating their way along nerves to the victim's brain) and self-destructing in a little while. Variants [[Typhoid Mary|keeping a live carrier intact]] may be voluntarily controlled by the carrier or even themselves have limited control over one's body - for designs carried in humans, the all-time favorite delivery method is [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot|projectile vomiting]] once the stomach overflows with stuff lethal in mist-droplet quantities.▼
*** The "[[Super Soldier|soldier boosts]]"
▲** Weaponized nanites - not much good for an open battle ([http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-11-14 vulnerable] to heat and ionizing radiation, and as such [[Kill It with Fire|purged with fire]] in small areas and [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-06-08 swept with beams] in large), but a very nasty assassination weapon. They are targeted (for example, [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-07-29 eating their way along nerves to the victim's brain, then make it non-recoverable]) and self-
** The "cloud AI" types stand out, but from what we have seen, given enough of time and challenges those are
** Also, one big and already metal-rich ecosystem seems to have co-evolved (over millions of years) into symbiosis with what is implied to be runaway nanobots,
* Featured prominently in the ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' [[Story Arc]] "[http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=000101 Kiki's Virus]," where nanobots turn into a deadly virus thanks to [[wikipedia:Year 2000 problem|Y2K]]. Nanotechnology is also used by Dr. Crabtree for more outlandish, [[Shape Shifter|shapeshifting]] purposes.
* Both used and subverted in ''Triquetra Cats'', nanites are a miracle cure for most any medical condition however each use increases your chances of contracting a disease called NCDS (nanite cellular disintegration syndrome) where the nanite user's cells can no longer support themselves and break down.
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* ''[[xkcd]]'', of course, have [http://xkcd.com/865/ a page] about this, too.
** For those interested - assuming one device is a cube 2 μm (volume 8 μm<sup>3</sup>), the total volume of devices uniquely addressed by 6 bytes would be <ref>(2×10<sup>-6</sup>m)<sup>3</sup> × 2<sup>(8×6)</sup> = 8*10<sup>-18</sup>m<sup>3</sup> × 2.815<sup>14</sup> ≈ 0.0225 m<sup>3</sup></ref> about 22.5 liters. Of course, they won't hold compactly, but it's not like something of this size is going to communicate over great range either.
== Web Original ==
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* Sam Everheart is walking around in the [[Whateley Universe]] because Sam interrupted an attempt to steal a nanotechnology experiment and ended up getting the nanotech, which then did a whole-body alteration. Luckily, Sam survived it.
* The ''[[Chaos Timeline]]'' has a lot of them in the last years.
== Western Animation ==
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** Nanomaterials: Super strong, very tough, and incredibly light, carbon nanomaterials. They are the [[Flying Brick]] of materials, in a sense. Variants include nanotubes, nanobuds, graphene sheets, etc.
** Nanomedicine: While we have no idea how to make ourselves immortal, superpowered badasses yet, doctors hope nanotechnology has the promise of eventually being able to cure the common cold. And HIV. And Cancer. The tricky part is actually getting the nanites to know what they should attack. This is being worked on mighty well. Nanites engineered to precisely exploit abnormally swollen pores in cancer tissue are in development. Ultra-tiny nanotube-based radio devices are also in development, which would allow for ''remote-controlled'' nanites, but those are somewhat farther away.
** Non-Newtonian liquid suspensions: Basically, funny-shaped particles made by nanoengineering, floating in thick oil. Flexible when subjected to the force of human muscles, but turn ultra-rigid when compressed by something faster. Like a bullet. Body armor that can stop a rifle round that also allows one to do crunches like it wasn't there. It's basically a man-made enhancement of the forces that allow [https://web.archive.org/web/20170814230258/http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=720f7702c5ab116120e0&page=1&viewtype=&category= John Tickle to walk on custard].
* If you think about it, nanomachines are actually much [[Older Than They Think]], since proteins are essentially naturally occurring nanomachines. They are quite small, and they can accomplish functions like [[wikipedia:Enzyme|facilitating chemical reactions]], [[wikipedia:Na-K-ATPase pump|pumping substances across barriers]], and when working together can even [[wikipedia:Actomyosin|cause macro-scale movement]] of objects.<ref>Without nanomachines, you wouldn't have been able to
** Monoclonal antibodies ''already'' meet most of the criteria for medical nanomachines. Cultivate some that adhere to tumors, stick a radioactive isotope on each one, and turn 'em loose in the body to hunt down their prey like itty bitty Terminators.
** Another impressive example of an existing natural nanomachine is ATP synthase, which makes both the electric motor <ref>specifically, a proton-motive electrostatic motor, complete with armature and stator</ref> ''and'' the reciprocating engine.<ref>the ATP-producing end is basically a 3-cylinder radial engine</ref>
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* This video, depicting [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYxBy_Sz3Wc claytronics]. This is just a simulation, but it is running of actual software. Using a sort of nanobot programming language, a CAD file gets read in, and the nanobots reshape themselves to match it. The program is supposedly only a couple of pages long. For now this is just software, nothing to worry about—but the guy who made this video thinks that he will have the hardware to do this in real life within the decade.
* Middle Ages style stained glass contains gold nanoparticles. [[Clock Punk]] nanotech ahoy!
* One of TRIZ methods is trying to solve the problem with certain ideal machines. One of which, coincidentally, is a mass of "tiny people" who can do basic things like holding together or moving, know what they have to do and when. If you can do this, the next step is to move toward conventional sizes and methods until your machine actually can be built, of course.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]▼
[[Category:Futuristic Tech Index]]
[[Category:Make My Index Live]]
[[Category:Robot Roll Call]]
▲[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
▲[[Category:Tiny Tropes]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Transhuman Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Nanomachines]]
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