Operation modes of a gem-gum factory
Contents
Mechanosphere pre-ingress
Complementary dissolution device (initial mining)
See related pages: Rock digestion chamber, Unknown matter claimer
(Before that even: Mining & Underground working)
The products are not yet crystolecules so they are not yet in the mechanosphere.
The products are feed-stock suitable for mechanosphere ingress (or long term storage).
Mechanosphere matter ingress
From feedstock to crystolecules and assemblies thereof.
Pathways into the mechanosphere
Air only mode
See related page: Air as a resource - possibly direct at usage site
For more indirect procurement see: Carbon capture buoy scenario
Limited to volatile elements only. That is products are combustible (back to air only - no solid ash at all).
Not necessarily easily combustible though. Diamond and aromatic ring rich structures can be quite hard to ignite and keep burning.
Large scale dispersed material structures are better to avoid for fire safety.
Hydrocarbon mode
The hydrocarbon operation mode is (just like the air only mode)
limited to volatile elements only. Thus the same in terms of fire (un)safety of products.
As the carbon source is concentrated and in itself an energy carrier.
Production can be faster and independent of an external energy source.
An option for supply would be tapping the natural gas network for (by then hopefully mostly green)
methane CH4 (or some other by then delivered carbon carrying gas).
That is: If these networks (or parts of them like connection to private households)
are not being removed by then due to energy political reasons.
Gasoline as feedstock may perhaps be feasible, ethanol too. Many options here.
Smaller molecules likely come with lesser impurity complications.
Large capsule transport. I.e. Macroscale object transport via some form of advanced tube mail.
General mode
The general mode adds non-volative elements to the mix,
allowing more base material gemstone compounds to be produced.
This may not be as noticable as one might think as even with only volatile elements for the based base gemstones
gemstone based metamaterials can provide an incredibly vast range of material properties already.
Particularly relevant is that nonvolatile elements are slack forming and thus
can provide full incombustibility of produchts for absolute fire safety.
This operation mode depends on delivery of feedstock procured by
mining and mechanosphere pre-ingress (covered further up).
Supply of nonvolatile element feedstock via small capsule transport via the
global microcomponent redistribution system may become the best and most used option.
See: Gem-gum factory, … (wiki-TODO: Add more links here.)
Mechanosphere matter turnover
Recycling mode:
This is a conversion fully within the mechanosphere.
From mechanosphere to mechanosphere.
This is much faster and much more energy efficient than all the other modes
as there is no need for ripping apart and forming again almost every single covalent bond.
I.e. much lower energy turnover.
See related pages: Recycling
Conversions within the mechanosphere:
The mechanosphere lifeline arteries:
Mechanosphere matter egress
Complementary dissolution device (final cleanup)
Pathways out of the the mechanosphere:
- Unknown matter claimer - most general device
- Diamondoid waste incineration - limited to combustible products
- Atomically precise disassembly - and why that's difficult
Egress from mechanosphee is not spill of mechanosphere
Note that this is about environment friendly controlled egress form
mechanosphere to biosphere, litosphere, hydrosphere, and whatnot.
When there is spill of mechanosphere then the spilled stuff is still in the mechanosphere.
The mechanosphere just mixes with the biosphere which in most cases (with a few exceptions)
likely a form of undesirable pollution.
Spill from machine phase & sphere intermixing
What actually happens here is that material of the mechanosphere leaves machine phase.
So the mechanosphere become disjoint dispersed and can get mixed up with other spheres.
It's similar to how biosphere and lithosphere can get mixed up a bit when soil and gravel mixes.
Well lines can become blurry when biosphere converts to crude oil. Digressing.
Natures biosphere microwaste spill
Soil i.e. humic substances can be kind of seen as the micro and nanoplastics of nature.
Nature had eons time of evolution to adapt to it's own littering and actually managed to adapt.
Though evolution can't keep up with our human rate of invention of new forms of plastics with regards to biodegradability.
Eternal biosphere mechanosphere rift & our responsibility
With the emergence of the mechanosphere new materials (e.g. silicon carbide crystolecules) will be introduced. A form of materials where nature never learned to biodegrade even remotely similar substances. If it had it would by now digest all kinds of rock at a similar rate than bio-materials and life would make much more massive structural use of non-volatile elements (Si,Al). There seem to be a fundamentally too massive complexity jump barrier of evolution towards such materials, heck even a fundamental barrier to use of silicones (-Si-O- chains with hydrocarbon side-chains) which are still chain molecules. Point is: While nature may eventually learn to digest out plastic litter given just enough time, to our future mechanosphere litter nature will never ever be able to adapt to, no matter the time-frame. At best it may learn to deal with with the molecular biological disruption rather than learn to decompose it. Even when all humans (and eventual intelligent successors) are gone, the mechanosphere spill will remain. At best eventually buried under sediments.The lithosphere removing the problem from the biosphere. This means: We humans will carry the sole responsibility to minimize litter and clean up at a high enough rate that spill concentrations do not get problematic.
