Wondering about gray goo? Here’s the conclusion from an analysis of the prospect of Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators:
”The smallest plausible biovorous nanoreplicator has a molecular weight of ~1 gigadalton and a minimum replication time of perhaps ~100 seconds, in theory permitting global ecophagy to be completed in as few as ~10^4 seconds. However, such rapid replication creates an immediately detectable thermal signature enabling effective defensive policing instrumentalities to be promptly deployed before significant damage to the ecology can occur.”
In short, the paper calculates that the maximum speed that self-replicating nanobots could eat the Earth is 2.78 hours. But they take comfort in the notion that this generates a lot of heat, which could alert “defensive measures.”
So…. look for any indication of global warming. It’s a sign.
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