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jsalsman OP t1_jdsrrur wrote

Reply to comment by FrermitTheKog in Drexler–Smalley debate on molecular nanotechnology by jsalsman

> Then molecular nanotech went out of fashion.

But it's still a crucial component of AGI catastrophe lore, just underplayed by people who conclude by saying things like "and that will be the end of cellular life."

> engineer proteins to fold up into the machines

Actually he emphasized "nano-assembers" which were far less bioengineering and more novel materials science for which there was no foundational support.

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FrermitTheKog t1_jdssiep wrote

Well, we've recently just had a situation where a self-replicating machine killed a lot of us, so it isn't completely insane. That said, I don't really spend much time worrying about people deliberately creating killer viruses and less worrying about more exotic artificial machines.

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