1 Introduction

Robert A. Freitas

Afterword

Ralph C. Merkle, Ph.D.

One of life's pleasures is writing an afterword for a classic- in-the-making. Not only will some of the glory inevitably rub off, there's also the illicit pleasure of having peeked at the future, like peeking at the Christmas presents before Christmas. A few of the possibilities of this new field of...

Appendix A

Robert A. Freitas

APPENDIX A Data for Replication Time and Replicator Mass

Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle

Data for replication time (τ) as a function of replicator mass (M) for 126 biological species,2600 1 chemical species,1372 and 9 actual or proposed artificial kinematic replicating systems across a size range spanning nearly 20 orders of magnitude, drawn from numerous sources (most apprecia...

Appendix B

Robert A. Freitas

APPENDIX B Design Notes on Some Aspects of the Merkle Freitas Molecular Assembler

Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle

Geometrical Derivation of Assembler Dimensions A preliminary design iteration revealed that the physical dimensions of the proposed molecular assembler are constrained by the choice of 4 box-specific geometrical parameters and 7 additional geometrical parameters related to the operation of the i...

Appendix C

Robert A. Freitas

Are Diamondoid Nanorobots Hazardous?

Robert A. Freitas

I diamondoid substances (Chapters 2 and 11). The first and most obvious question regarding biocompatibility thus must be: What health risks, if any, are associated with the in vivo use of diamondoid devices or their detached parts, components, or detritus? There may be billions or trillions of n...

Biocompatibility of Nanomedical Materials

Robert A. Freitas

A great deal is already known about the biocompatibility of various materials that are likely to find extensive use in medical nanorobots. Chapter 15.3 includes a review of the experimentally-determined overall biocompatibility of diamond (Section 15.3.1), carbon fullerenes (Section 15.3.2), non...

CHAPTER 1 The Concept of Self-Replicating Machines

Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle

For most of human history, man’s tools and machines bore no resemblance to living organisms and gave no hint of any commonality between the living and the artificial.150 In Paleolithic times,151-158 most machines manufactured by man were primitive bone or wooden sticks, crudely shaped handaxes a...

CHAPTER 2 Classical Theory of Machine Replication

Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle

The early history of machine replication theory is largely the record of von Neumann’s thinking on the matter during the 1940s and 1950s, particularly his kinematic and cellular models, described below. Von Neumann did not finish or publish most of his work on this subject prior to his untimely ...

CHAPTER 3 Macroscale Kinematic Machine Replicators

Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle

Specific proposals and realizations of von Neumann’s kinematic replicators and related physical implementations of macroscale machine replicators or self-replicating factory systems are of the greatest interest in the context of this book. Penrose,683 quoting Kemeny,243 complained that the body ...

CHAPTER 6 Motivations for Molecular-Scale Machine Replicator Design

Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle

In 1959, Feynman2182 proposed that we could arrange atoms in most of the ways permitted by physical law. Von Neumann3 analyzed a few basic architectures for self-replicating systems in the 1940s and early 1950s, and several possible implementations of von Neumann’s kinematic replicators were des...

Classical Biocompatibility

Robert A. Freitas

The question of biocompatibility234-237 arises whenever any foreign substance — be it natural materials,6054 therapeutic cells, a transplanted organ, an artificial implant, or a medical nanorobot — is placed inside the human body for medical purposes. The most general definition of biocompatibil...

Communication

Robert A. Freitas

Communication is an important fundamental capability of medical nanorobots. At the most basic level, nanomachines must pass sensory and control data among internal subsystems to ensure stable and correct device operation. They must also exchange messages with biological cells, communicating with...

Glossary

Robert A. Freitas

Glossary

Robert A. Freitas

N/A

Manipulation and Locomotion

Robert A. Freitas

Manipulation and mobility are crucial basic capabilities in most classes of medical nanodevices. Manipulation includes handling fluids, biological objects such as tissue matrix fibers or cellular elements, and nanomachines or their components. Physicians must be able to direct tissue- or cell-re...

Molecular Transport and Sortation

Robert A. Freitas

The human body consists of ~7 x 1027 atoms arranged in a highly aperiodic physical structure. Although 41 chemical elements are commonly found in the body’s construction (Table 3.1), CHON comprises 99% of its atoms. Fully 87% of human body atoms are either hydrogen or oxygen. Somatic atoms are ...

Nanorobot Mechanocompatibility

Robert A. Freitas

Unlike pharmaceutical agents whose interactions with biology are largely chemical in nature, medical nanorobots will interact both chemically and mechanically (Chapter 15.1) with human tissues and cells. Similarly, traditional biomedical device implants (Section 15.2.1) produce both chemical and...

Nanosensors and Nanoscale Scanning

Robert A. Freitas

Medical nanorobots need to acquire information from their environment to properly execute their assigned tasks. Such acquisition is achieved using onboard nanoscale sensors, or nanosensors, of various types. Nanosensors allow for medical nanodevices to monitor environmental states at three diffe...

Navigation

Robert A. Freitas

It is difficult to imagine any significant application of medical nanodevices which does not involve navigation, however crude. Devices intended to monitor somatic states, assemble artificial internal structures, remove tumors or foreign matter, combat infections, or perform repairs, must normal...

Other Basic Capabilities

Robert A. Freitas

This final Chapter describes a miscellany of important technical capabilities that may prove useful in some or all medical nanodevices, in various scenarios or theaters of operation. Any one of these subjects deserves an entire chapter to itself, but unfortunately there is only space in this int...

Pathways to Molecular Manufacturing

Robert A. Freitas

Most contemporary industrial fabrication processes are based on “top-down” technologies, wherein small objects are sawn or machined from larger objects, or small features are imposed on larger objects, in either case by removing unwanted matter. The results of such processes may be small, such a...

Power

Robert A. Freitas

Device energetics may represent the most serious limitation in nanorobot design. Almost all medical nanodevices will be actively powered. Mechanical motions, pumping, chemical transformations and the like all require the expenditure of energy, measured in joules. Even a drug molecule interaction...