🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1445@m-net.UUCP> russ@m-net.UUCP (Russ Cage) writes:
>In <2411@watcgl.waterloo.edu> kdmoen@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Doug Moen) writes:
>>[...]  If it *does* turn out to be possible to build Grey Goo,
>>then by the time fabrication technology catches up, perhaps we can have
>>a wide spectrum of Goo killing techniques already available.

>You have to find it first.  The difficulty is that, in order to decide
>if a particular bit of nanomachinery is Gray Goo (or a part thereof),
>you have to analyze its program to see if it ever quits reproducing.
>This is exactly equivalent to the halting problem, which is insoluble.

Fortunately solving the halting problem is not necessary to controlling
Grey Goo.  Better safe than sorry: we kill any nanomachinery that we
can't prove will stop reproducing in a reasonable amount of time.
After all, there is little practical difference between something that
never stops reproducing and something that stops after 100 million
years.

-- 
    o							Andre Guirard
   < '	  The race is not always to the swift...	"Thai green beads"
   / >	  but it's a pretty safe bet.			ihnp4!mmm!cipher
  '