Nanotechnology

First off, hello to the list.  I just joined about a week ago and 
have been lurking up until now.  I'm mostly playing DSII; I like 
tanks, and Dirtside so far seems about as fast-playing as Ogre ever 
was but with a much more robust system.

On the subject of nanotechnology.  As I understand it, there are two 
models for how industrial nanotech might work:	the assembly line and 
the tree.  With the assembly line, the assemblers and disassemblers 
(the "nanites," if you prefer; I don't) are arranged along the walls 
of a big vat, which is filled with a "soup" containing the raw 
materials for whatever is to be built.	As the right molecule passes 
within reach of the right assembler arm, the arm grabs it and snaps 
it into place.

The "tree" model is just like what it sounds like:  a "seed" is 
planted in a resource-rich environment.  Contained in the seed are 
the blueprints for what is to be built, the controlling computer, and 
enough basic tools to get started.  As the seed grows, taking in 
solar energy and resources from the "soil," it uses its existing 
tools to build more specialized tools and expand itself outward to 
reach more energy and resources.  Once it reached a certain level of 
maturity, it could begin producing whatever it was created to 
produce:  screwdrivers, PDAs, suits of powered armor, etc.

Both models have their advantages and disadvantages.  The "fifth 
column" tourists mentioned in the fiction that started this thread 
would probably be using the tree/seed method, but it probably would 
still take weeks before anything useful could be grown, and that 
would probably be plenty of time for police microbots to discover the 
operation.

Note that in neither of these models are the assemblers floating 
freely in the air, making use of whatever they come into contact 
with.  In the assembly line, they're constrained by the physical 
limits of the vat.  In the tree model, they're contained inside the 
tree itself; as with a real tree, the only interaction they have with 
the outside environment is when the tree absorbs sunlight and food 
and gives off waste products.  Assemblers that could survive and 
reproduce in the open air would be extremely dangerous; they'd 
probably only be created as a weapon of mass destruction.

Ramifications for the game... well, I suspect that you'd have to 
write a whole new game.  Nanotech will do more than just streamline 
production of tanks and allow for stronger materials; it will likely 
change the face of warfare completely.	Tanks and powered armor would 
quickly become irrelevant; one man with some utility fog 
(http://www.wildirisdesign.com/nano/ufog.html) would be close to 
invulnerable to anything Dirtside has to offer short of a direct 
nuclear strike, and would be able to singlehandedly level a sizeable 
city.  This is just one example.

-- 
I am Shig the Unmentionable	   Peace and Justice
      and I have spoken.