ShadowRAM: Annihilation by nanobots ridiculous

COMMENTARY: Rumours, truth and innuendo


Annihilation by nanobots ridiculous
Boffins from around Australia recently convened on Queensland resort town Noosa to hear the latest on quantum nanoscience at this year’s Sir Mark Oliphant Conference.

And the latest is that the grey goo theory — a scenario in which self-replicating man-made robots or chemical lifeforms produced by nanotechnology devour all other living things on the planet — is nonsense.

According to the conference’s convener, professor Gerard Milburn, the very idea came down to nothing more than media scare-mongering.

"It’s not science. It’s not even remotely feasible," he said in a statement. "It’s a beat-up, pure and simple."

Milburn argues that life itself has been replicating uncontrolled for the past two to three billion years without any individual lifeform consuming all others, so why would nanobots do the same?

Clearly the 1973 sci-fi classic Westworld — in which robots go on a killing spree — is not one of his favourite movies.

The Shadow kind of agrees that all this ‘nano-gobbledegook’ is a bit far fetched.

However, Milburn said researchers did recognise there are important issues of health, safety, ownership and ethics to be considered with the new technology and how it is used.

Seinfeld’s George all washed up
At Lotusphere, Jason Alexander, aka George on the late, great TV series Seinfeld, addressed thousands of Lotus partners and customers. He was introduced to the familiar ‘Seinfeld’ theme, raising hopes momentarily that Jerry himself might be the mystery guest.

Nope. Just George. The actor quickly put things into perspective. ‘As I look at this sea of faces, I realise one thing: my career has gone into the crapper.’

Yes or no Michael!
Dell keeps hinting about maybe, possibly, considering using AMD processors to power some of its build-to-order systems.

The latest admission was at the World Economic Forum, where Michael Dell told Reuters that the company is open to using AMD. "Sure. We do not have an exclusive relationship with Intel," he said.
What do all these public statements mean? There are two schools of thought.

The first is that Dell actually is planning to pick up AMD processors this year. The other is that Dell is simply looking to avoid fuelling the fire of the antitrust suit that AMD filed against Intel last June.

That suit claims that Intel used monopolistic powers to coerce large-scale computer makers, system builders, wholesale distributors and retailers into using its processors. Intel has denied the charges.

Dell is one of the last large PC makers that exclusively uses Intel processors, and many solution providers have charged that the direct marketer gets preferential treatment for its loyalty.