Nanomachines: Difference between revisions

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** Medical. Regeneration vats are awesome, but they include external control and support systems, and expensive. The only common piece of multi-species medical equipment in the field is a body-bag that keeps the brain alive in anabiosis.

** "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.

*** The "[[Super Soldier|soldier boosts]]" - the same, plus augmentation of tissues and enough of integration with neural system to avoid [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|control problems]]. [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-12-03 Really expensive] to install and restricted in many polities. High-end ones may include "weapon package", so when an operative is disarmed, there still are surprises, since micro-implants, let alone swarms of nanobots spread through the body, are either overlooked as fairly common or left alone because it's hard to remove or disable them without killing the host.

*** The "[[Super Soldier|soldier boosts]]" - the same, plus augmentation of tissues and enough of integration with neural system to avoid [[Does Not Know His Own Strength|control problems]]. [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2004-12-03 Really expensive] to install and restricted in many polities. High-end ones may include "weapon package", so when an operative is disarmed, there still are surprises, since micro-implants, let alone swarms of nanobots spread through the body, are either overlooked as fairly common or left alone because it's hard to remove or disable them without killing the host (short of throwing the latter in a jar swarming with your own for a while).

** 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, then make it non-recoverable) 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.

** 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-destruct later. Variants [[Typhoid Mary|keeping a live carrier intact]] may be voluntarily controlled by the carrier or even nanobots may have limited control over one's body - for designs carried in humans, the all-time favorite delivery method is [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot|projectile vomiting]] a [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2012-11-13 full stomach of] stuff lethal in mist-droplet quantities.

** The "cloud AI" types stand out, but from what we have seen, given enough of time and challenges those are ~~even more~~ prone to ~~evolving~~ ~~far~~ out of ~~parameters~~ one way or another than conventional fixed-hardware AI.

** The "cloud AI" types stand out, but from what we have seen, given enough of time and challenges those are prone to [[Zeroth Law Rebellion|evolving out of their initial rules]] one way or another even more than conventional fixed-hardware AI.

** 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, ~~that~~ formerly ~~were~~ used by the cyborgized sophonts who owned the place, and now electroplate bones and carapaces of local fauna (and at least one of these species also have developed sapience over this time).

** 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, formerly used by the cyborgized sophonts who owned the place, and now electroplate bones and carapaces of local fauna (and at least one of these species also have developed sapience over this time).

* 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 μm3), the total volume of devices uniquely addressed by 6 bytes would be <ref>(2×10-6m)3 × 2(8×6) = 8*10-18m3 × 2.81514 ≈ 0.0225 m3</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 ==