Not to mention that programmable-cell-based manufacturing is extremely flexible, nanoscale, easily expanded by growing a larger culture population, and can be completely self-powering and self-repairing. I've been arguing that Biotic Fabrication is the future of (at least a significant part of) material science and manufacturing since I learned about those goats that were engineered to make Spider Silk in their mammary glands back in middle school... once we have the genetic modification tools to do it precisely and cheaply, it's going to be as good as a new industrial revolution. Once we overcome the stigma of self-modification, it'll change a lot more too.
For starters, we already have Vats of existing microbes turning one molecule into another; photosynthetic organisms regenerating oxygen from CO2, polymer-eating bacteria recycling plastic trash into it's components, magnetotaxic bacteria turning Iron and Oxygen into magnetite nanomagnets, etc. All pretty cool, but the crazy-cool stuff happens when you can program custom biotics to synthesize whatever material you want, with nanoscale precision. A series of bacteria-ish organisms (or maybe complex macrobacteria) could synthesize nanoscale components, transistors, and even enzymatically assemble complete nanobots. Of course, they may well be as good as or better than the nanobots themselves for many purposes, if we can completely customize their behavior and genome.
It doesn't have to be limited to industry, or inorganic materials either. Medicine could see surgical programmed cells serving as organic bandages that can break down necrotic tissue, seal a wound, and stitch it closed, or a series of "organic grouts" that could replace dead or damaged cells in vital organs or tissues as though part of the rest of the organ, for rapid treatment of life-threatening injuries. And probably tons of applications which I can't even imagine.
Steven Hawking got pretty hyped about stuff tangential to this in the later part of this lecture:
http://www.hawking.org.uk/life-in-the-universe.html. Highly recommended (Personally, I fed it into a text-to-speech synthesizer, but to each their own). Self-Designing Lifeforms can adapt at the speed of Information and Language (hours for complete and precise changes), rather than at the speed of Evolution (thousands of years for small random changes). Basically, once we gain fluency in modifying life on a genetic level, we can transcend so many boundaries by being able to directly change our own biological strengths and limitations in the same way we can change the tools we currently use. Us inventing Language and Tools are just half-steps between Evolutionary life and that sort of Self-Designing life.
So, apparently Klein Bottles have been a 3D representation of the 4D equivalent of a Mobius Loop all along, and I never noticed until someone said it. I understand that the size difference of the outer and inner bit is the rendering of 4D "Perspective", where the 4th-Dimensionally-Nearer outer bit is rendered larger in 3D space than the more 4D-Distant bit inside, to create the illusion of 4D Depth. I always thought they were cool, but knowing that makes them a lot cooler.
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Topic: SCIENCE, Gravitational waves, and the whole LIGO OST! (Read 513185 times)