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Nanorot |
Nano-rot
is not the result of any
particular nanotech device, but is instead a general phenomenon, and a
property
of any highly evolved mechosystem.
The term is used
to refer to the
action of any artificial organism that employs nanotech,
is capable of
self-replication, and breaks down natural or synthetic materials as
part of its
life cycle. Agents of nano-rot may be simple nanobots,
but these often lack
sufficient flexibility to survive and replicate in complicated
environments. More
often nano-rot is caused by microscopic bots
that
employ nanoscale
technology as a part of their internal processes. These may be dry
nano,
synano,
or bionano
in origin, or
they may even be highly gengineered
descendants of natural organisms (Terragen or otherwise). They are the
artificial equivalent of the bacteria and fungi that are an essential
part of
any ecosystem. Usually these bots were specifically designed to have a
function
as decomposers, as part of a mechosystem’s recycling systems.
However some
agents of nano-rot were originally designed to be part of some limited
manufacturing or extraction process and others yet again were created
as agents
of destruction by military or terrorist organizations, and have escaped
from
their original context or have been purposely adapted to other uses.
Good
system design employs nano-rot, just
as good ecosystem design takes advantage of the action of decomposing
organisms. However, escaped or poorly managed nano-rot can be a
nuisance or even
a life-threatening hazard. In vecs or bots they may even be equivalent
to some
of the diseases that afflict biological organisms. Important structures
or
subsystems may be weakened, malfunction, or collapse as a result of
nano-rot.
On the other hand they may simply become unsightly and acquire a
“rusty” or
“moth-eaten” appearance. In a standard Terragen
oxygen-bearing atmosphere
structures made of metals or diamondoid are particularly vulnerable,
since
nano-rot can live and replicate by converting them to metal oxides or
carbon
dioxide and using the energy released in the process to create more
copies of themselves. Unchecked, such a process can consume entire
cities or megastructures. Primitive rogue nano-rot agents, poorly
controlled due to an even more primitive understanding of their
ecology, are believed to have been a major element in the famed nanodisaster
early in Terragen history. There have of course been major outbreaks of
nano-rot "organisms" in the times since, but a more fundamental fact is
the fact that decay and decomposition have been a significant part of
the technological landscape ever since; artificial substances from
plastics to diamondoid to steel are as subject to decay as natural ones
always were. For this reason,
some
builders prefer to use inert materials, while others inoculate their
structures
with protective nano.
Sophont-level
mechosystem designers and
managers find the management of nano-rot bots a significant challenge,
and even
transapients may be surprised on occasion. Not only are the
interactions of a
well developed mechosystem fully as complex as those of any ecosystem,
but new
nano-rot agents are often introduced by or modified by sapient or
transapient
individuals whose actions may themselves be unpredictable. What is
more,
existing nanorot bots may evolve, either through natural selection or
as a
program
integral to their design, or in some combination of the two.
In most polities quarantine restrictions for nanobots, microbots and other m-life are just as comprehensive as those for biological life forms, and the creation of any self-replicating bots is subject to heavy regulation, comparable to the creation and introduction of new self-replicating biological organisms into the ecosystem. Recently there have been several unfortunate incidents involving the careless introduction of microbots based on designs derived from studies at Stanislaw. Some of these bot forms have proved to be as aggressive as they are sophisticated. As a result many polities have placed a moratorium on Stanislaw-derived bot designs.
