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Caspian comments on For FAI: Is "Molecular Nanotechnology" putting our best foot forward? - Less Wrong Discussion

48 Post author: leplen 22 June 2013 04:44AM

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Comment author: Caspian 26 June 2013 02:58:31PM 3 points [-]

You can get microphones much smaller than 7 cm, and they can detect frequencies way lower than 20 kHz. There's no rule saying you need a large detector to pick up a signal with a large wavelength.

Comment author: asr 26 June 2013 04:06:24PM 2 points [-]

I believe the original comment isn't about the receiver, but about the emitter -- that if you use audible-range sound or even ultrasound, the spatial resolution of the signal will be impossibly large compared to a nanobot. Each nanobot will be able to get the signal, but you won't be able to only communicate with nanobots in a specific part of the body.

This might not be a fatal objection, since you could imagine some sort of protocol with unique addresses or whatnot, but it's an objection.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 26 June 2013 04:47:23PM 2 points [-]

This isn't about bots, it's about a little tiny factory building your second-stage materials.