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Drexlerian nanotech
#5
I'm fairly certain that's wrong, though I've not read Engines in over ten years so you could be right and Drexler never spoke of anything beyond assembling purely at a molecular scale. Other writers of the time like Merkle certainly did:
http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/convergent.html. The idea being that lower layers would eventually feed macroscopic parts into a chamber that would assemble them using more conventional manufacturing techniques (which incidentally is how OA fabs work). For blocks of metal you could have all sorts of chambers for this e.g. a vacuum chamber with a metal spray nozzle that "prints" via vacuum welding. In any case "Drexlerian nanotechnology" doesn't just mean only the exact things Eric Drexler hypothesised. It's everything based on that (namely the idea of diamondoid structures and a nanofactory).

And besides all that I think the argument is kind of moot. Even if Drexler didn't mention parallel convergent construction (which I'm very skeptical of) I'd argue the vast majority of science fiction authors who write about nanofactories understand that it would be a key part of it.
OA Wish list:
  1. DNI
  2. Internal medical system
  3. A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!
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Messages In This Thread
Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-20-2017, 10:13 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-20-2017, 10:40 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-20-2017, 10:43 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-21-2017, 06:20 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by JohnnyYesterday - 06-21-2017, 01:38 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-21-2017, 06:32 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-21-2017, 07:17 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-21-2017, 07:25 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-21-2017, 09:00 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-21-2017, 10:58 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-21-2017, 06:35 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by radtech497 - 06-21-2017, 11:51 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-21-2017, 10:23 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-21-2017, 11:25 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-22-2017, 12:05 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-22-2017, 12:17 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-22-2017, 10:02 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-22-2017, 12:34 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Avengium - 06-22-2017, 03:01 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by iancampbell - 06-22-2017, 01:12 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-22-2017, 03:22 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by JohnnyYesterday - 06-22-2017, 12:52 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-22-2017, 10:35 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-22-2017, 12:15 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-22-2017, 06:24 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-22-2017, 10:27 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-23-2017, 01:12 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-23-2017, 02:15 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-23-2017, 09:09 AM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-23-2017, 12:02 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Rynn - 06-23-2017, 06:45 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Alphadon - 06-24-2017, 12:38 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by Drashner1 - 06-24-2017, 01:16 PM
RE: Drexlerian nanotech - by stevebowers - 06-24-2017, 03:44 PM

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