ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

214 NanoTechnology
(1972) anticipated “nanominiaturized robots to serve us.” Feynman (1961)
reported that a friend, Albert R. Hibbs suggested:
a very interesting possibility for relatively small machines. He says
that, although it is a very wild idea, it would be interesting in surgery
if you could swallow the surgeon. You put the mechanical surgeon
inside the blood vessel ... . Other small machines might be
permanently incorporated inside the body ... .
Feinberg (1985) sees
... the construction of nanosensors that could be implanted into the
human body. They could ... [monitor] various physiological
functions from subcellular molecules up through tissues and organs
... essential in determining some of the mechanisms involved in
growth and aging.
Feinberg (1985) also proposed the use of laser energy to power and
communicate with implanted sensors, and to direct activities of nanorobots.
... using coherent, short-wavelength radiation, we too will be able to
match the accomplishments of the cells that compose us, and do
molecular engineering.
These molecular structures will be much more complex than
anything that human technology has thus far achieved ... . It may be
possible to extend some of the methods using ... shortwavelength
coherent radiation ... to nanofabrication as well as to seeing what we
are doing in the nanoworld, since microholography can be used to
demagnify patterns as well as magnify them.
There exist rationale and applicability for mobile nanodevices whose
missions might be to stalk and destroy lethal viruses or malignancies, excavate
clogged blood vessels, correct genetic expression and differentiation, repair or
remove the processes of ageing including senile tangles of cytoskeletal proteins,
and perhaps augment natural capabilities. Virtually every disease might be
amenable to intracellular house calls by such structures, if they ever exist. Such
nanodevices might be patterned after, or directly utilize, cytoskeletal elements
(centrioles, microtubules, etc.), viruses (bacteriophages) programmed by
specifically engineered genes, and/or controlled by telemetry. Synthetic materials
including nano STM/FMs composed of piezo-materials may be incorporated.
Ellis (1962) discussed the possibility of microteleoperators (and suggested
that protein enzymes may function in this manner). Nanoantennas have been
proposed by Marks (1985) who described two orthogonal layers (about 200
nanometers in length) of metallic dipole antenna arrays which can convert
photons to direct current with 75 percent efficiency. Javan (1985, 1986) has
studied metal whiskers which can form tunnel junctions and may be suitable as
nanoantennas. Feinberg’s (1985) notion of communication by short wavelength
coherent radiation, and Pohl’s nanoaperture concept could be utilized for remote
nanovision feedback and observation of nanoscale activities (Schneiker, 1986).
STM/FMs combined with genetic engineering and immunological techniques
could be used to create, observe, and evaluate such mobile nanodevices whose
capabilities would be optimized as replicating automata.