Gem-gum technology
| Defining traits of technology level III | |
|---|---|
| building method | robotic control (machine phase) |
| building material | minimal molecule fragments and single H atoms |
| building environment | vacuum or noble gas |
| Navigation | |
| back to very first level | technology level 0 |
| previous level | technology level II |
| previous step | introduction of practically perfect vacuum |
| you are here | Technology level III |
| basis for products | diamondoid metamaterials |
| products | further improvement at technology level III |
Gemstone metamaterial technology (or gem-gum-tec for short) is the far term target technology of atomically precise manufacturing. This far term technology target was established as worth pursuing in the book Nanosystems.
This technology target:
- is based on stringent application of exploratory engineering.
- is not a fantastic vision based on wishful thinking
(See: Ultimate limits#Whisful thinking vs Exploratory engineering)
Here in this wiki "gem-gum tech" Used without a prefix:
- shall always refer to "in-vacuum gem-gum tech".
- shall not refer to "in-solvent gem-gum tech"
(an eventual precursor technology)
Contents
About the chosen name for this kind of technology (meta)
"In-vacuum gemstone metamaterial technology" is a novel term introduced on this wiki (2017).
Alternative older terms had one or many of the following problems:
- they didn't exclude unrelated topics well (far too general and wide in scope)
- they didn't capture the most important aspects of the technology well
- they weren't catchy memorable and usable short
This situation led to problems in form of confusion and conflict in the past.
Introduction of the new terms should in general be kept to a minimum.
But in this case the new term seems well motivated and thus justified.
Motivations for the name
The "gem-gum" part of the name represents two core ideas:
1) The core idea that even when one can mechanosynthesize almost nothing (just a few simple base materials) one can make almost anything by mechanical emulation. Mechanical metamaterials. "gum" is just a shorthand for a concrete example of such a metamaterial that rhymes on "gem" which makes memorization a lot easier. Also it's an concrete example that's rather un-intuitive. Rubber made from gemstone. Which could peak interest (click-bait effect).
2) The core idea that gradually increasing the stiffness of the materials one builds with is the ultimate key to advanced mechanosynthesis. The term "gem" (short for gemstone - obviously) points exclusively to the stiff base materials of the far term target technology. This explicitly excludes early stage atomically precise manufacturing such as "structural DNA nanotechnology" which has no positional atomic precision and would be mushed in with other terms.
The "in-vacuum" part of the name narrows down further to materials that can only be synthesized in practically perfect vacuum.
See main page: The defining traits of gem-gum-tec
Modifications of the name
On this wiki "Technology level III" may sometimes be used synonymously for in-vacuum gem-gum technology.
By leaving out the "in-vacuum" part of the name (leaving only "gem-gum-tec") one can precisely widen the scope to include one technology level below. Namely (In-solvent gem-gum technology).
An other term occasionally used on the wiki to refer to gem-gum-tec is "advanced atomically precise technology". In-liquid gem-gum-tec may or may not be included dependent on context.
Introduction
The nature of products is outlined in the definition of advanced APM on the Main Page. (TODO: Maybe move some information to here)
Artifacts (products) of in-vacuum gem-gum technology are manufactured via robotic atomically precise pick and place actions with molecule fragments of a size ranging from one to a few atoms each (force applying mechanosynthesis). This happens in an environment "filled" with practically perfect vacuum.
Products are assembled in some advanced productive nanosystem e.g. an atomically precise small scale factory.
Most promising candidate at the moment are nanofactories with appropriate design that employ convergent assembly.
This page will focus more on the products (artifacts of atomically precise technology)
rather the production devices (devices for atomically precise manufacturing)
Related
- Technology levels
- The defining traits of gem-gum-tec
- In-vacuum gem-gum technology is both making up and made by gemstone metamaterial on chip factory.
If that sounds paradox it's because of the chicken egg problem of bootstrapping such factories. - Gem-gum technology (disambiguation)
