Showing posts with label nano revolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nano revolution. Show all posts
Rise of the
Nano

Molecular Cybernetics
It’s Design and Application

By
Clyde L. Hays

Rough Draft

January 26, 2004



Abstract:

                Rise of the Nano is an overview and technical paper dealing with the new field of Molecular Cybernetics, a type of nanotechnology that is made of individual solid-state semiconductor polygons thirty nanometers cubed that act as artificial molecules through the control of artificial atoms. Aspects covered are technical specifics in hardware such as design and manufacturing, then software parameters like polymorphous networks and interface modules, and lastly applications such as assemblers and disassemblers, Nano computers, and Nano machines.



Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

                Credit rest in all of those whose work came before, and serves the bases for my small insight, and to Donna, for going out of the way to help and being a friend.

About The Author

                Clyde L. Hays is an inventor and student who resides in Texas, and is currently at work on: “Transition: a discussion on the societal implications from Nano technological breakthrough of Molecular Cybernetics.”




Introduction:

                Nano and nanotechnology have become by-words of our times. A word used, but not well understood, or, even used correctly. That is about to change!
          Nano is a Greek word meaning Dwarf (01) and is the prefix of our metric nanometer, which stands for one-billionth of a meter. Nano has gained it’s notoriety through the words and foresight of Dr. K. Eric Drexler, who titles and founded what has not become the field of nanotechnology, a field that is a bubbling revolution if ever there was one.
          In 1981, while at the ivory halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the young Drexler began exploring a vision first articulated by the renowned physicist Richard Feynman in a speech to the American Physical Society in 1959 entitled, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” (02) In this speech Feynman brought our attention to the possibilities of controlling atoms and there molecules individually instead of in masses jumbled together as we do even to this day in Chemistry and Engineering Labs.
          Working off this premier, Dr. Drexler forged a new field of what he labeled nanotechnology, and set forth to catalog this field in his 1986 bestseller, “Engines of Creation” (03). From the moment the ink dried to those papers Nano technological ideals have proliferate in leaps and bounds.
          Case in point, every major university now has a Nanotechnology Department, and all nations have a fund set aside for nanotechnology research and development. In 2004, the U.S. Congress authorized $3.7 billion for four years, and created the American Nanotechnology Preparedness Center and the multiagency National Nanotechnology Initiative to help usher in these new Nano technological discoveries. (04)
          What, though, do we truly mean when we say nanotechnology? Well, true nanotechnology is exactly what Dr. Drexler laid out in “Engines of Creation”, a “Technology based on the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules to build structures to complex atomic specifications.: (05) And true nanotechnology is here!

Molecular Cybernetics, the “Breakthrough” (06)

                On the first of January, 2004 I completed a paper titled, “Molecular Cybernetics: a proposal for the construction of a Quantum Dot Utility Fog,” (07) in which I outlined a Nano substance consisting of layered semiconductor polygons thirty nanometers cubed with quantum dots on each of its six faces. Each quantum dot would create and control artificial atoms and exchange photons for power and communication.
          I called these Nano cubes Qmotes, for quantum motes or particles, and went on to summarize there capabilities, which are motive and clutching ability via magnetic modulation, precise photon emission-absorption, reflection-refraction of optical effects, and chemical bonding. Utilizing these abilities, I stated, would give you a conglomerate substance that could communicate with each other, power itself, modify or morph into three-dimensional materials, produce visual effects, and chemically effect real atoms.
          This discovery was a direct result of the visions of two separate individuals. One of them, Dr. J. Storrs Hall of Rutgers University in the early 1990s proposed an ambitious design called “Utility Fog” made of micro sized twelve armed bots that acted autonomously in conglomerates of billions changing their color and shape to suite your commands. Utility Fog, though, ran into a slight problem of the micro-realm, an atomic friction force called “stiction’ that clogs and erodes tiny moving parts. (09)
          Then there was the work of aerospace engineer and journalist Wil McCarthy who wrote the book, “Hacking Matter” (10) and introduced us all to a material called Quantum Dots that “traps” electrons and manipulates them to create artificial atoms that act and react just as real atoms do.
          Combing these two visions, Utility Fog and Quantum Dots, gives us a material of unbounding potential, a material that not only changes its color and shape, but that can exchange photons for energy and communication, and chemically bond and control real atoms.
          I called this new study Molecular Cybernetics, a title meaning to steer or control molecular substances, and this substance has within it all the aspects and wishes of the nanotechnologist. Based on sound scientific principals and research all of our hopes and dreams are within reach, the “Breakthrough” is upon us.

Hardware

          The workhorses of Molecular Cybernetics are Qmotes, a cube of semiconductor around thirty nanometers with a quantum dot on each of its six faces and a processor at its center. This was the design outlined in my original paper, and I intentionally left technical specifics vague to allow the concept to be judged on principal. That has now taken place, and we can begin to explore how to actually construct these devices. Below I have broken down this construction into fives spheres of influence that overlap in a steady progression of design.
          As stated before, my first encounter with quantum dots – the devices that are the center of Molecular Cybernetics – came from the 2003 book “Hacking Matter” by Wil McCarty. This book was a treaty on semiconductors, a subject you must grasp to understand what is happening at the more level of Molecular Cybernetic, so this too, is where I must began.

Quantum Dots (11)

                A semiconductor is an insulator of charge that has been doped with very precise amounts of another material into its crystal lattice to allow it to become a conductor at very precise energies. This is the very principal behind our computer chip technologies, a trillion dollar industrial principal.
          When you dope these semiconductors – which are usually silicon – with electron “donor” atoms such as phosphorus it will become an “N” or negative type semiconductor, which contain an excess electron for every atom of dopant. This gives you an electron to transfer around. The opposite is true if you add “borrower” atoms like aluminum to the semiconductor material, you will produce a “P” or positive type material which has spaces where electrons are not; these spaces are called “holes” or “electron holes”.
          If you were to place an “N” layer of semiconductor between two “P” layers you have what is called a P-N-P junction. In the late 1980’s this design was discovered to produce some interesting actions when configured extremely thin, about ten nanometers or so, which is the size of the de Brogile wavelength of a room-temperature electron.
          A de Brogile wavelength is a quantum-mechanical concept that deals with the wave nature of electrons, and when you confine electrons this small they become standing waves or probity density functions. The electrons are “trapper” in the “N” layer and are not allowed to escape, unable to move as waves they instead take on characteristics of diffuse electric charge. This is a substance that is confined on all planes, so it instead behaves as a type of electron gas, a gas made of particles that have a repulsive force toward all other particles, and leads each to form orbitals in there confinement. And this is exactly what happens in real atoms, except that there is no nucleus adding to the confinement.
          A miniature P-N-P junction is the simplest quantum dot, a layered semiconductor that “traps” electrons which form orbitals and mimic the characteristics of real atoms even though the electrons are orbiting no nucleus.
          Working off this design physicist Marc Kastner (12) and others in conjunction with MIT’s Electrical Engineering Department stumbled onto what has become the standard of quantum dot design, the electrostatic gate quantum dot. Kastner noticed that if you apply arranged electrodes on the outer face of your P-N-P junction you create an electrostatic fence that corrals the electrons beneath it. Again, the “trapper” electrons behave as a de Brogile standing wave, and through varying the voltage on the fence you can control the electrons below.
          “If this sounds familiar,” stated Wil McCarthy in ‘Hacking Matter’, “it’s because there’s another more ordinary place where electrons behave this way: in atoms. Electrons, which are part of an atom, will arrange themselves into ‘orbitals’, which constrain and define their positions around the positively charged nucleus. These orbitals, and the electrons that partially or completely fill them are what determine the physical and chemical properties of an atom – that is, how it is affected by electric and magnetic fields, and also what other sorts of atoms it can react with, and how strongly.
          “This point bears repeating: the electrons trapped in a quantum dot will arrange themselves as though they were part of an atom, even though there’s no atomic nucleus for them to surround. Which atom they resemble depends on the number of excess electrons trapped inside the dot. Amazing, right? If you’re not amazed, go back and read the last … paragraphs again. I’ll wait.” (13)
          This is our Quantum Dot, a P-N-P junction of semiconductor with an electrode fence on their faces that controls the “trapped” electrons and creates what Marc Kastner called “artificial atoms”. (14)
          Properties produced by these devices are photon emission (15) via the lining up of the electrons and electron holes. Photon Absorption (16) via connecting to a charge drain, also called the photovoltaic effect. Magnetic-nonmagnetic (17) modulation via controlling electron spin, orbital configuration, or the pumping in and out of electrons. And lastly, optical (18) and chemical (19) effects via controlling the confinement of the number and configuration of the trapped electrons.


Cubes, Hypercubes, and Qmotes

                The first application for quantum dots as a material was the Quantum Dot Fiber, or Wellstone, a substance patented in August 2001 by Wil McCarthy and Dr. Gary Snyder (20). This is a design that called for quantum dots to be embedded into a fiber and weaved together, then attached to a power and control mechanism, giving you a material that can produce all the effects of quantum dots, but on a massive scale and in a material.
          I see nothing wrong in the concept of a quantum dot fiber, although, there is clearly a limitation in mobility, which is what defines how your effects can be deployed and utilized. Quantum Dot Fibers could possibly bend and move slightly, but being weaved together and missing an independent internal processor you have no real movement or shape morphing abilities.
          On the other hand, if you were to embed your quantum dots into a single polygon solid with the quantum dots on each outer face, and were able to regulate them from an internal processor you would have a material that acts as an artificial motive molecule. One quantum dot face could take in energy and communicate, another could clutch other polygons via magnetic effects, and another face could take on chemical or optical characteristics. Then, as needed, any face could alter its application on command.
          In my original paper, I labeled these polygons Qmotes for quantum motes or particles, and suggested that the preferred polygon would be a cubic one. I will again stay with a cubic polygon, although, as I will show later, this is really what is called a hypercube. The six sided cube balance the needs of compactness and control, this does not mean that other polygons will not perform, such as dodecahedron or tetrahedron, and we will be able to test these once we have the use of general assemblers. Although, I believe the cubic design will hold out for our uses.

          The fabrication specifics of a Qmote consist of a thirty (30) nanometer solid with a quantum dot deployed on each of its six faces. Each quantum dot has a surface gate structure around twenty (20) nanometers, allowing for a five (5) nanometer edge on each face.
          Each quantum dot will have a layered structure of ten (10) nanometers, and angle in from the surface corners to a base “P” layer with ten (10) nanometer bottom surfaces. The semiconductor will consist of three (3) nanometer layers, or fifteen (15) silicon atoms thick. The outer surface layer will be around a nanometer thick and slightly cover the gate electrodes. In illustration #01 a wedge of Quote is shown demonstrating this. Illustration #02 shows a Mote missing the front, rear, and top wedges, as well as its processor.
          In illustration #03 you see a Qmote with an electrode fence of four, this is one of the issues that needs experimental test performed to determine the correct electrostatic control. Just the same, each electrode as shown covers the face in a staggered arrangement starting five (5) nanometers in and extending fourteen (14) nanometers over the face, with a two (2) nanometer gap between any two. The electrodes will then angle in through the underlying layers to meet the processor residing in a ten (10) nanometer cubic cavity at the center.
          This design is a cube within a cube, or what is called a hypercube (21). This does not actually extend into a fourth dimension as the hypercube title implies. This could of course be debated when considering its quantum use, though I will leave that open for others to discuss.
          Following the draft outline above, will give us the basic Qmote, a symmetrical material that can effect and be affected on all planes as commanded.

Quantum Generator Circuitry

                The processor for a Qmote is what I have come to call a Qgen. Or Quantum Generator because of how a Qmote will act in its logic circuitry to control the six quantum dots in there required states. There’s a number of ways to achieve this, and here I will take up two of the most likely, Qbits and SETs.
          A Qbit or quantum bit is a quantum-mechanical state that enables a bit to be treated as a super position of states, a “1” or a “0” or both at the same time. In “Hacking Matter” McCarthy explained it as such: “While a qbit can decohere into only two possible states (on or off), five qbits together (the largest number assembled into a quantum computer as of this writing) can collapse into 25, or 32, different states. And before the collapse, the qbits, in a very literal sense, can both store and perform computations on all 32 states, a feat that a binary computer would need 32 sets of 5, or 150 bits in all – plus calculating hardware – to match.” (22)
          Qbits were demonstrated in 1995 by the NIST (National Institute of Standards) in Boulder, Colorado and Caltech (California Institute of Technology) in Pasadena. An in 1999, Yasunoba Nakmura, or NEC in Tsukuba, Japan demonstrated the controlled operation of qbits, a major step in their use. (23)
          The requirements for a Qmote Qgen will consist of over one hundred and forty (140) basic control states. You have six quantum dots, each has four electrodes, and each electrode must be able to add or deduct around one hundred (100) states.
          A Qgen utilizing qbits could possibly generate all the possible states needed using eight qbits. This would be a function of two hundred and fifty six (256) logic actions.
          Qbits, though, might still be a few years off, so let us explore the use of another possible circuit design for the generation of Qmote control. This is utilizing SETs, or Single Electron Transistors, first demonstrated in 1989 by Marc Kastner and student John Scott-Thomas in cooperation with the IBM Corporation.
          A SET, as the name implies, is the control of a single electron at a time. The possibility of utilizing SETs in digital logic circuits was obvious, with the presence or absence of an electron corresponding to a “1” or “0” respectively. In 1997, Harvard physicist David Goldhaber-Gordon (25) described the smallest practical SET that consist of a “wire” made of conductive c6 (benzene) molecules, with an inline “resonant tunneling device,” which is a conductive benzene molecule surrounded by hydrocarbon (CH2) molecules that serve as insulators. This forms a two-dimensional hexagon-shaped SET (26) that is one-tenth the size of a C60 buckyball, a sphere made of 60 carbon atoms.
          The utilization of SETs for our Qgen will take more circuitry than using qbits, although, we could do it today, and program it similar to any other digital circuit we have in our millions of electrical products.
          To program our Qgen there is a couple of issues that we need to consider, namely the polymorphous ability of each Qmote, and how this will apply to the Qgen logic cycle. I will take polymorphous aspects up in a later section on networking, but for the moment lets work with the requirement that each Qmote must compute internally and independently. This would be similar to the actions of parallel Field Programmable Gate Arrays, (FPGA’s), (27) these are chips that allow the unique process of allowing there circuitry to reworked at any time to change how it computes.
          If we utilize this programming parameter it will allow Qmotes to operate in a type of universal logic function that can be adaptive to perform any type of computational parameter, whether that is parallel processing, vector processing, neural networks, cellular automaton, turing machines, cyclic tag, or any other that can be designed now or in the future. (28)




Manufacturing

                In “Engines of Creation”, Dr. Drexler envisioned stages of manufacturing for nanofabrication, (29) one stage would go on to fabricate the next stage, going smaller and smaller until you have the version of nanotechnology you need. We can utilize a form of this manufacturing Qmotes.
          Qmotes have the ability to bond to real atoms, and once bonded they can then use there motive power to construct these atoms into specific materials. This is a form of reproduction called replication. I will take up this application in later sections, but to apply it we first need a batch of Qmotes. So, what we are truly concerned with here is manufacturing what Drexler called primitive assemblers, (30) devices that function to assemble superior functioning nanomaterial’s. Qmotes do not fit Drexler’s exact definition because of their ability to replicate through conglomerate action only. This means that if we produce one Qmote it will not have the ability to reproduce in itself, although, a million working together would.
          The fabrication of a million Qmotes could then begin a cascading replication of exponential growth. To begin though, we need a million Qmotes and we have two avenues to that process, the proven and the hopeful.
          The proven is also the slow. In physics laboratories everywhere there are atoms manipulating “toys” being used called proximal probe machines. These “toys” allow scientist to view and manipulate individual atoms. One of the first demonstrations of these machines was the famed spelling of the Corporate title “IBM” out of thirty-five Xenon atoms.
          There are two main types of proximal probe machines, the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), which images the surface of atoms by sensing surface contours through monitoring the current jumping the gap between probe tip and atomic surface. The second is the atomic force microscope (AFM) that drags its probe over the atomic surface and optically measures the vibrations as it goes.
          In another book on nanotechnology by Dr. Drexler and company titled, “Unbounding the Future”, the use of proximal probe machines for manufacturing is explored. Drexler wrote that, “One way to bridge the gap {of building Nano assemblers} would be through the development of an AFM-based molecular manipulator capable of doing primitive molecular manufacturing. This device would combine a simple molecular device – a molecular gripper – with an AFM positioning mechanism. An AFM can move its tip with precision; a molecular manipulator would add a gripper to the tip to hold a molecular tool. A molecular manipulator of this kind would guide chemical reactions by positioning molecules, like a slow, simple, but enormous assembler.” (31)
          Using proximal probe devices to build up individual Qmotes atom by atom is certainly possibly, and just as well, certainly slow. As Drexler goes on to state in “Unbounding the Future,” “Proximal-probe instruments may be a big help in building the first generation of Nano machines, but they have a basic limit: Each instrument is huge on a molecular scale, and could bond only one molecular piece at a time. To make anything large – say, large enough to see with the necked eye – would take an absurdly long time. A device of this sort could add one piece per second, but even a pin head contains more atoms than the number of seconds since the formation of the earth.” (32)
          We on the other hand, are only trying to build one million or so Qmotes, so the uses of proximal probe machines are within our range. If you figured it would take an automated atomic force microscope twenty minutes to complete one Qmote it would take that machine twenty eight years to reach the mark of one million. Instead of one machine, let’s say you have fifty AFMs, each working in parallel, producing a total of seventy-two Qmotes a day; you would now reach the one million goal in almost ten months, each machine producing twenty thousand Qmotes. This clearly brings the first batch of Qmotes closer to reality.
          Before we begin pulling AFMs from there labs, let us look at another possibility, one that can produce Qmotes in bulk quantities using the new fabrication technique called epitaxial film growth, also known as molecular beam epitay (MBE). This is a process physics Gerard Milburn explained as, “based on the growth of crystal structures by laying down single atomic layers. By carefully controlling the kinds of atoms laid down a whole class of artificial crystal structures can be developed in which the energy bands are tailored rather than simply served up ready-made by nature.” (33)
          In my original paper I touched on how we might be able to use MBE to construct large wafers of Qmotes that we could then delicately slice up to release millions of Qmotes at a time. I am not familiar with this process enough to determine if it is up to our needs, especially in the range of laying the atomic configuration for the Qgen circuitry. Although, it does deserve the evaluation time to determine its prospects. And if it is determined to be worthy, it would only take one to two wafers to begin the cascade to assemblers. A day’s time to the AFMs months.

Software

          The reign of the Nano has now arisen. We have a substance just thirty nanometers cubed that produces artificial atoms and controls them to interact with nature itself. In this section I will try to cover some of the programming issues that these tiny polymorphic substances present.

Polymorphous Networks

          Computer chips and circuits today are two-dimensional substances that consist of traces connecting diodes and logic gates that act as networks to compute algorithm’s and perform functions. Molecular Cybernetic materials are three-dimensional substances, bringing forth a whole new computing experience, a whole new dimension of possibilities. It’s the difference between a flat sheet of paper and an Einsteinan Universe.
          And if three-dimensional computing was not enough, Molecular Cybernetic materials are also polymorphous, which is defined as: “having, assuming or passing through many or various forms, stages and the like.” (34) A Qmote can configure any of its six sides into states ranging from magnetic, to nonmagnetic, to photon emitting, to photon absorbing, to atomically mimicking, or simply inert. This is clearly a polymorphous substance by definition.
          The interaction between two or more is a network, and there is many types of networks, neural ones like our nervous system, scale-free ones like our interactions with friends and community, and basic mathematical ones, and even autonomous types. Then there is a polymorphous network, the type Molecular Cybernetic materials characterize, a network that can assume the parameters of any type of network on demand, and do this in any of the three dimensions.
          The basis for this polymorphous networking is in the way Qmotes communicate, which is through photon absorption and emissions. Photons travel at the speed of light and need no medium to transverse except space itself. How this applies is that two Qmotes sitting side by side can communicate just as easily as two Qmotes sitting ten feet apart.
          Here’s a good analogy of this, you’re standing at the back of a long line and want to tell everyone an important message. It is too noisy to holler, so you tell the person in front of you to tell the person in front of them, and on and one, in a type of bucket brigade format. Qmotes, on the other hand, would be able to step outside the line into a third dimension, skip to the front at light speed, then morph the person in the head of the line into a clone of itself to spread the message in its area. It could then skip to the middle of the line and do the same.
          Utilizing these two processes is something that is going to need to be studied in-depth to catalog all of their potentials, though, the ones easily recognizable are earth shacking. The first POS or Polymorphic Operating Systems utilizing these aspects should not be too far behind this understood. (Microsoft might become MS-POS, or how about an open source version called X-POS?)
          One possible application that might allow us to fret out some of the possibilities here is the use of a software technique called, “genetic algorithms”. In a recent article on this technique it was defined as, “it creates a random population of potential solutions, then test each one for success, selecting the best of the batch to pass on their ‘genes’ to the next generation, including slight mutations to introduce variations. The process is repeated until the program evolves a workable solution.”(35) Used in a Molecular Cybernetic computation parameter these algorithms would reproduce at the speed of photos, giving us our answers fairly quickly, and from there it is your dreams.

Interface Module

          An interface is a platform used to communicate with something else. A keyboard, mouse, and monitor are all interfaces used to communicate with personal computers. For Molecular Cybernetic materials to compute or form it first has to be able to communicate, to do this one of the first aspects that must be meet in an interface, which I have come to call in this situation a ‘intermod’ (enter-mod) for interface module.
          Building an intermod is not exactly like constructing other interfaces, as were dealing with a three-dimensional polymorphic material that communicates at light speed.
          The first thing we need to do is appropriate a number of Qmotes and have those forms into a single communicating substance. This will form a type of hierarchical command that cascades out. The reason for this is that you want to form a central control feature where all commands originate from. This is both for security and ease of use. This does not mean all computation must be done from the Intermod, just that the command for it to begin and the command for it to cease would originate from the Intermod.
          To do this you would generate a code that you’re Intermod and its network is going to use, you send this to the Qmotes you appropriated and commands on how to arrange using a laser. This original command would tell the Qmotes to form memory cache, processor space, and input and output lines, and to communicate with itself in the chosen code only.
          As the photons flow out of your laser the Qmotes will began morphing into a block, dividing sections as commanded, and have jurisdiction over all motes under its code to command and control as its operations call for to morph, store data, crunch instructions, or to appropriate new Qmotes as needed.
          An Intermod is likely to become very personal in the sense that it will be a symbiotic function that receives all the commands of an individual, and using its polymorphic abilities, adapts the Qmotes under its control to those commands.

Qsec.

          In explaining the configuration of the Intermod I talked about using a code to designate and command a group of Qmotes, this aspect of Molecular Cybernetics is achieved through a process known as Quantum Cryptography, and concerns Qmotes utilization of photons for communication.
          Quantum Cryptography is the newest process under development in Cryptography, and according to the “Encyclopedia of Science and Technology,”: “relies on the quantum-mechanical effect of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principal. According to Heisenberg, any energy used to determine a subatomic particle’s position will change its velocity. In the case of messages stored as variation in polarization states, energy used to measure each photon’s polarization will garble the intended message, revealing tampering. A second process takes advantages of optical interference, focusing on each photon’s phase; bends in the optical fiber [reflection] can change photon polarization, but they do not effect phase. A third variation involves sending polarized photons through the open air, employing interference effects. So far, these techniques are limited to a distance of 20 miles or less. However, the advantages of using quantum cryptography are great... promis[sing] the ability to send both message and key simultaneously, overcoming the greatest challenge to secure transmission of information.” (36)
          Since Quantum Cryptography is a type of encryption that is done through the use of photons and photon polarization, and since Qmotes communicate through photons and can emit polarized photons, (37) it is a simple step to utilize this quantum function for secure communication. I have labeled the use of this function in Molecular Cybernetics as Qsec. meaning Quantum Secure.
          Molecular Cybernetic materials using Qsec. will form a type of property-owner relationship that guarantees the control of these materials. This will become very important if these materials are used to bond with biological functions as you do not want them affected by outside forces. This can as well be said for Molecular Cybernetics as a whole, as you do not want the threat to exist that children can accidently manipulate a substance into one that could be harmful.
          Qsec. is just another amazing feature that allows the deployment of Molecular Cybernetics into all spheres of our life. Encoded correctly we can guarantee that misuse is limited, and desired uses proliferates.




Applications

          “If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it … then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.” Stated Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle, and quotes by Dr. Drexler in his “Engines of Creation” for a chapter titled “Engines of Abundance.” (38) Drexler used the quote as a primer as to what is too come with nanotechnology, and this too we must now concern ourselves.
          Molecular Cybernetics can be broken down into three basic sections for discussion: assembler-disassembler, that deal with molecular control of atomic configuration; Nano computers and computation that deals with the computational leaps that are upon us, and lastly Nano mechanical issues of having the control of molecular substances.
          I will try to address some of the possibilities that is presented through Molecular Cybernetics in these three sections, there will of course be many I cannot address because of the need of brevity, though, I hope to be able to touch on some of the most profound.

Assemblers and Disassemblers

          Molecular Cybernetics has the possibility of achieving one of the most sought after Nano technological applications: the assembler and disassembler. These two functions concern the individual control of individual atoms, and a Qmote can do just that with chemical bonding applications mixed with motive control.
          Defined by Dr. Drexler an assembler is: “a machine that can be programmed to build virtually any molecular structure or device from simpler chemical building blocks, Analogous to a computer-driven machine shop.” And a disassembler is: “a system of nano machines able to take an object apart a few atoms at a time, while recording its structure at the molecular level.” (39)
          Molecular Cybernetics can achieve both assemblers and disassemblers, and this is exactly where the name itself comes from, the control or steering of molecular substances.
          In our discussion on manufacturing I talked about the ability of Qmotes to use limited assembler applications to replicate them, so far a discussion on assemblers I will began by explaining how this process might work, and through this we will understand how Molecular Cybernetics can assemble atomic configuration for other uses.
          Assemblers have three concerns: appropriation of materials, operational demands, and operation function. Appropriation of materials consists of locating the atoms you are going to build with. Operational demands concern the way the structure is going to be built and how. And lastly, the operation function is the carrying out of the operation, or simply construction.
          In the task before us we have a one million Qmote workforce that we will deploy according to a set program. Some will act as memory, others walls, and others as atom haulers. We can slightly cheat here in the sense that we can use existing computer power and laser technology to command and communicate with our limited assemblers.
          The operational demand calls for the replication of Qmotes, and these are mode of four basic materials. The appropriation would consist of four granular sized blocks, one of carbon for the main semiconductor, some aluminum and phosphorus for donor atoms, and gold or silver for conductors. To get an idea of the amount picture four grains of sand and you would have enough material to produce over a billion Qmotes.
          We now send a message with our laser to the million Qmotes and have them form what would look like a block house with a different material sticking out each of the four walls, with the top wall, or roof being the communication section, and the completed Qmotes entering the world through the bottom.
          When commanded Qmotes designated as atom haulers would float like little maglev trains through tunnels to rip individual atoms from the materials in storage then travel down tunnels designated for loads, all the time communicating where it is and what it is doing. When a loaded atom hauler approaches the under-construction Qmote it would slide into position to unload its atom at the desired position and flow into a tunnel for a new load.
          The new Qmote would expand atom by atom in a type of parallel construction until it was completed, and then fall out of the bottom so the assembler factory could begin a new fabrication. As the new Qmote falls away there would be a communication link to encode it with commands so it can take up a working application.
          If this assembler plant were to replicate a single Qmote every twenty-five microseconds, and a plat itself is made from one million Qmotes, it would have an exponential growth cycle of seven hours. After the first seven hours you have two million Qmotes, if they re-replicate, in seven more hours you have four million. If continued as such, it would take almost twenty days to reach a growth rate of one cubic foot (148 Quintillion Qmotes), which could then produce a cubic foot every twenty-five microseconds.
          The construction of a disassembler would work very similar to our assembler plant, except that it deconstructed an object not constructed. To do this would arrange a layer of Qmotes parallel to your disassembly structure to act as sub post platforms. You then send in the atom haulers, which would pull up to a certain section, record the scene before it, pull an atom free and carry it away as another atom hauler arrived to take a new picture and the next atom, removing layer by layer the object and creating a data stream of its atomic makeup.
          Once disassembly is completed you have a three dimensional atomic blueprint of your object and storage of material to reassemble it if so desired.
          Assemblers and Disassemblers will give us the ability to have an atomic machine shop at the atomic level, adding or removing atoms as we wish.

Nano Computers

          This subject does not need much discussing in that it is fairly obvious that a three dimensional polymorphic substance will have awesome computational speed and storage. The only aspect I wish to comment on is the distinct connection between Molecular Cybernetic Nano computers and the ideal of Nano computers as proposed in basic Nano technological papers.
          A nano computer has been the subject of much discussion, and it’s normally a layout of a mechanical function, this would work by the moving of molecules similar to biological functions. There is nothing wrong with this design, as we know it is a good one because it is how all life works. Just the same, though, Molecular Cybernetic nano computers would work through electrical applications, a process we have long found to be superior to mechanical.
          Construction a Molecular Cybernetic Nano Computer involves the arrangement of Qmotes into a desired form so they can exchange photons in a process, then downloading the files and operations to be computed. The result is a system of almost unlimited memory and processor speeds, - faster than our own biological functions – and happening at the speed of light. I do not think I need to say much more, it’s one of them things that is shocking but self-evident.

Nano Machines

          Characterizing nano machines is a little complicated, as an assembler or a nano computer can both be nano machines by definition, but what I am referring to here is a configuration of Qmotes that take on mechanical task. A good example would be the configuration of a type of acoustic transceiver, this would consist of a wall of Qmotes that vibrate (a mechanical state) and record sound or produce sound as desired.
          Molecular Cybernetic Nano Machines like Nano Computers in the last section will outperform the ideas proposed previously, as they do not necessarily have to consist of molecular fabricated mechanical devices but be Qmote fabricated throughout. There is of course limits to this, although, those limits can be breached by the addition of on the spot assembly of the desired mechanical substance.
          What type of applications would full Qmotes be able to morph into? Many I believe, so many that it might take encyclopedias to catalog even half there arrangements, although we now have the memory capacity to store and retrieve it, so begin preparing your proposals. Below I will propose a few of the basic ones that seem self-evident.
(1)  Light Ways: this is a polymorphic fiber optic design that can lay itself automatically. Its use would be in connecting points with a secure communication link. It could as well allow the transit of Qmotes if needed.
(2)  Invisibility Cloaking: this can be done via modulating your Qmotes, having one receiving the range of reflection it needs to mimic and the other producing it.
(3)  Sensory Implant: since Qmotes can mimic chemical actions it could attach to your central nervous system and perform an interface to give or remove stimuli, producing reality virtually.
(4)  Oxygen Scrubber: a disassembler platform that removes carbon from our respiration to allow breathing in any environment.
(5)  Acoustic Transceiver: a platform of Qmotes that vibrate to record and produce sound.
(6)  Launcher: a type of electromagnetic system to accelerate Qmotes into orbit or space via the modulation of Mote Magnetic parameters.
(7)  Zoological Tag and Monitoring: this is a two piece configuration, one part is a tag that you attach to the specimen to monitor its functions, the second is a balloon-wing type configuration that would glide over an area to communicate with the tags.



Conclusion

          Molecular Cybernetics research is bound to begin in a very short time, so answers are sure to begin rolling in. Qmotes are simple enough that with proximal probe machines you could produce thirty within a day or so, and armed with a computed and laser technology begin ground breaking research in the development that is to come.
          I am certain that within the year we will have a print for a basic Qmote construction, and through bulk manufacturing or parallel proximal probe the Breakthrough will be upon us.
          Throughout this paper is many Drexlerian references, and these have been intentionally, Dr. Drexler through his writing and work at his Foresight Institute has repeatedly elaborated on the responsibility that we must bear when the Breakthrough happens, and I am in league whole heartedly with these intentions. It is my view that the rise of the nano is a good thing, and by following the Drexler model we can cushion and troublesome applications might arise.
          I find comfort in this sphere of discussion from a recent quote in Inc. Magazine by Alvin Toffler the author of the best-selling “Future Shock” who stated very simply and profoundly: “Technology doesn’t do anything by itself. There is no such thing as a technology that is capable of functioning outside a social setting. Technology is a social invention.”(40)
          How true that is, we invented the radio, television, automobile, etc., and look how they have improved who we have come to be. The most supreme of technologies is upon is, and society is liberated. Long Live the Revolution!




References

(1)  Drexler, K. Eric, “Unbounding the Future: the nanotechnology revolution,” 1991, Quill, New York, NY; pp.34
(2)  Feynman, Richard, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”, reprinted in “Miniaturization,” edited by H.D. Gilbert, 1962, Basic Books, New York, NY
(3)  Drexler, K. Eric, “Engines of Creation: the coming era of nanotechnology,” 1987, Anchor Press New York, NY
(4)  Quoted from “Nanotech Bill gives field a Boost”, by A.G. (Alexandra Goho) in Science News, Dec.3, 2003, Vol. 164, No. 23, p. 366
(5)  Drexler, “Engines of Creation”, pp.288
(6)  Note: The concept for “Breakthrough” is a Drexlerian one that is concerned with a type of cascading effect of technology and the responsibility that goes with it. For a good ideal on this read, Drexler, “Unbounding the Future”.
(7)  Hays, Clyde L., “Molecular Cybernetics: a proposal for the construction of a Quantum Dot Utility Fog.” January 2004
(8)  Hall, J. Storrs, “Utility Fog: A Universal Physical Substance,” Vision-21, Westlake, OH, NASA Conference Publication 10129, pp. 115-126 and Utility Fog: the stuff Dreams are made of,” http://www.nanotech.rutgers.edu.nanotech/Ufog.html
(9)  McCarthy, Wil, “The Heart of (Programmable) Matter”, http://scifi.com/sfw/Issue203/labnotes.html
(10)      McCarthy, Wil, “Hacking Matter, Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness of Programmable Atoms,” 2003, Basic Books, New York, NY
(11)      Note: All my knowledge on Quantum Dots comes from the informative book titled “Hacking Matter” by Wil McCarthy
(12)      Kastner, Marc A., “Artificial Atoms”, 1993, Physics Today, January, pp.24-31
(13)      McCarthy, Wil, “Hacking Matter”, pp.17-19
(14)      Kastner, Marc A., “Artificial Atoms”
(15)      McCarthy, Wil, “Hacking Matter”, pp.16, “An when voltages are placed across them, they bring large number of electrons and electron holes together at fixed energies, and thus have the interesting property of producing photons of very precise wavelengths. This means they can be used to make laser beams including ‘surface emitting’ lasers that can be fashioned directly onto the surface of a microchip.”
(16)      Ibid, pp. 2053, “Bawendi’s solids can also be excited optically rather than electrically: like the quantum dot solutions they have the fascinating ability to drink in light at virtually any higher wavelength, and spit it back out in a newly monochromatic stream. The light source can be almost anything: white, colored, laser, ultraviolet … What comes out is a single bright color determined by the exact characteristics of the quantum dot. These crystals also reflect, refract, and absorb light in interesting – and electrically variable ways.”
(17)      Ibid, pp. 102-103, “It’s not clear whether quantum dots can improve on this performance, but one thing they should be uniquely able to do is modify their magnetic properties on the fly. This could be accomplished by wither pumping in and out, moving the electrons to excited states where there spins are different, or distorting or reshaping the orbital structure to achieve a particular effect. One of the scientist I spoke with boasted privately that his lab would produce switchable ferromagnetic material by 2006, ‘I know just how to do it, he mouths, ‘but I’m a college professor. I write grants and reviews and papers, there’s not much time for actual work. What I need to do is find the right grad student to work on it for me.”
(18)      Ibid, pp. 111, “With arrays of quantum dots,’ Ashoori notes, ‘you could make artificial materials with any sort of electronic or magnetic properties that you like. I think there are huge possibilities.”
(19)      Ibid, pp.143, “An individual quantum dot can produce light only at one specific frequency (color) which is determined by the energy levels of its trapped electrons.”
(20)      Ibid, pp. 104-106, for complete discussion on chemical aspects, and, pp. 159, also, despite its solid-state design, Wellstone [quantum dot fibers] is capable of weakly interacting with other objects. It can grasp atoms and molecules, and even pass them around one dot to the next.”
(21)      McCarthy, Wil; and Snyder, Gary E.; Provisional Patent Application Ser. #60/312264, filed 13 August 2001, titled “Quantum Dot Fiber”
(22)      Kim, Scott, “Hyperspace: Up, Out, and Away” in Discover Magazine, Oct. 2002, p.82
(23)      McCarthy, Wil, “Hacking Matter”, pp. 32-33
(24)      Ibid, pp.32, for NIST and Caltech reports,; Nakamura discover from Technology Review, Oct. 2003, pp. 106, and see also, Jan. 2004 Discover Magazine article, “Quantum Computing Makes a Giant Leap,” by Kathy A. Svitil, pp. 33
(25)      McCarthy, Wil, “Hacking Matter”, pp. 20
(26)      Ibid, pp. 130-131
(27)      Note: Ibis, pp. 191, McCarthy classifies this design as a quantum dot, giving us more possibilities for its use.
(28)      Note: FPGA’s have begun hitting the market through the Xilinx Corporation, and a discussion on their use can be found in, Martin, J. “After the Internet: Alien Intelligence,” 2000, Capital Press, Washington, DC, pp. 289-290
(29)      Note: see, Wolfram, Stephen, “A New Kind of Science”, 2002, Wolfram Media, Champaign, IL, for a discussion on Universal Computation and Networking.
(30)      Drexler, “ Engines of Creation”
(31)      Drexler, “Unbounding the Future”, pp. 123-126
(32)      Ibid, pp.118
(33)      Ibid, pp. 98
(34)      Milburn, G.J. “Schrodinger’s Machines: the Quantum Technology Reshaping Everyday Life,” 1996, Freeman, New York, NY, pp.91
(35)      Webster’s American Family Dictionary, pp. 732
(36)      See Aug. 203, Discover Magazine, article “Darwin in a Box,” by Steven Johnson, pp. 24-25, and also Martin, “After the Internet”, pp. 281-294
(37)      Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 2001 Routledge, New York, NY, pp. 129
(38)      McCarthy, Wil, “Hacking Matter”, pp. 97
(39)      Drexler, “Engines of Creation”, pp. 53
(40)      Ibid, pp. 285-286
(41)      Katkin, Joel, “The Future is Here: But it is Shocking?” , Inc. Magazine, Dec. 2000, pp. 108-114




Selected Glossary

          Covered here are only new concepts, others that are important can be found via references listed.
·         Intermod (Enter-Mod) or Interface Module: A Molecular Cybernetic configuration that takes on a hierarchical status to control a network of Qmotes.
·         Molecular Cybernetics: the control of molecular substances through Qmotes
·         Polymorphous Networks: a network system that can mimic other networks by reconfiguring how its structure is arranged.
·         Qgen or Quantum Generator: the internal processor of a Qmote
·         Qmote or Quantum Mote: an individual polygon with quantum dots on all of its outer surfaces and a central processor in its innards for control.

·         Qsec or Quantum Secure: a title referring to the use of Quantum Cryptographic principals in Qmote communication.