A Universal Assembler is a construction machine that manipulates and builds with individual atoms or molecules. One of the prime goals of long-term nanotech research is the production of a programmable self-replicating assembler. This is a device which can make a complete copy of itself given raw materials and energy. After sufficient quantities of assemblers are available, they are then re-programmed to produce something else useful. In science fiction literature, such assemblers have been called matter compilers. Assemblers capable of making any object desired are called universal assemblers. A mite next to a gear chain produced using nanotechnology Nanotechnology as a collective term refers to technological developments on the nanometer scale, usually 0. ...
Nature abounds with nanotechnological self-replicating assemblers called bacteria, which can be reprogrammed to perform some types of tasks by genetic engineering. Some progress has been made in this area, where researchers have inserted genes for a particular protein into a bacterium. One of the first examples of this is the immune-system hormone interferon. Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Genetically modified organism. ... Interferons (IFNs) are natural proteins produced by the cells of the immune systems of most animals in response to challenges by foreign agents such as viruses, bacteria, parasites and tumour cells. ...
Nature's limited assemblers, the ribosomes, are not merely crippled universalassemblers, but assemblers which have evolved specific to their task; the protein engineers are demonstrating the difficulties involved in trying to modify these limited assemblers for other tasks.
Assemblers can build the raw materials of molecules and compounds from their constituent atoms; and assemblers can be used to indirectly produce all the atomic raw material which may be rare or unavailable.
Whereas assemblers are geared toward the assembly of objects by the placement of atoms and molecules, a utility fog would create objects in a slightly less permanent manner by interlocking the arms of 100-micron robotic cells ("foglets").
A nanotechassembler is a device which can physically rearrange matter, atom by atom, according to some program to produce a desired result.
A simple example of the sort of thing a universalassembler could do would be to turn graphite (from the lead of a pencil) into diamond.
Not a problem if your assemblers are confined to the lab - but an accidental release of these devices into the global ecosystem could result in a mass extinction unprecedented in its scope, devastating in its speed, and from which the earth would never recover.
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