3 ms·

here's a book he wrote... 18 years ago. there's great stuff in there. how to build a computer out of rod logic. how get pure sources of elements by cascading fi

• jerf 18y ago
  The recursive idea is an old one. If it worked we'd have had some sort of assembly-based nanotechnology decades ago. The problem is that the nature of matter and mechanics changes as you get small; the world as we know it ceases to be, and you enter a world where what we macroscopic folk call a "chemical reaction" becomes a "physical force", where friction is a much larger concern, and where this strange new van der Waals force makes everything strangely alternative sticky and slippery in strange and bold new ways. Unfortunately, we need to build an entirely new engineering discipline for the small. Which is underway, but takes some time.