Super-habitats

Xenophile,

Yes, and I think that we have a better chance of realising nano-tech in the
short term by starting with something that is in one sense already
nano-tech. If you think about it, biological cells are self-assembling,
self-replicating, functioning machines that we can work with now. I have
been reading about (if I find the article I will post the reference but the
place is a mess right now) about attempts at standardising the working tools
of bio-engineer and attempts at building life in a test tube from scratch,
putting the basic units into a tube, heat, shake and pour out a cell. We are
near to being able to grow some of our machines, some will not be bio based
for a long time but some are not far off. The bio-tech revolution is about
to start and fortunes will be lost and made and they are going to be so big
that a certain Mr Gates is going to look like a beggar. A friend was telling
me about research into a group of bugs that extract metal from ore, they eat
rock and poop copper/gold/iron/etc.

50-100K an island and 100K to 100M a continent? Radius or length? Could be
confused with a continent down here. Hmmm, need to think, a good start but
not sure but a very good start. It is better than habitat and hyper habitat
or super habitat.

Darren

Don't build it, grow it. Sounds good to me.

But of course that's what a mature nonotech does. The only diff
between it and what you've described is that your nanobots were
originally some biological thing. The rest is the same:
self-replicating, starting with raw materials, building the habitat(*)
from the molecules up, etc.

(*)If something from 50 metres up to 100 thousand metres is an Island,
perhaps something from 100 thousand metres up to a 100 million metres
should be a Continent.