Guided tour - Revision history

Apm: moved content out to dedicated pages

2018-07-17T18:01:25Z

moved content out to dedicated pages

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 The tour is still a far stretch from being in a somewhat coherent state.
-== Tour by topic ==
+* [[Tour by topic]]
+* [[Tour by map]]

Apm: removed forced table of contents

2018-07-17T02:28:20Z

removed forced table of contents

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:28, 17 July 2018
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	~~__TOC__~~
	Here forms a general introduction to atomically precise manufacturing.		Here forms a general introduction to atomically precise manufacturing.
	The introductory tour is meant for a wide target audience ranging from newbie to expert and from young to old.		The introductory tour is meant for a wide target audience ranging from newbie to expert and from young to old.

Apm: moved the tour a is out away from the main page - too much text was there

2018-07-14T09:51:51Z

moved the tour a is out away from the main page - too much text was there

New page

__TOC__
Here forms a general introduction to atomically precise manufacturing.
The introductory tour is meant for a wide target audience ranging from newbie to expert and from young to old.
(Advanced readers should be able to quickly dive deeper via [[progressive disclosure]]).

Please excuse the links dangling into construction sites.<br>
The tour is still a far stretch from being in a somewhat coherent state.

== Tour by topic ==

{{Template:Orientation}}

== Tour by map ==

There is something like a universal all encompassing [[possibility space|timeless landscape of technology]] (an abstract concept).
This landscape turns out to be very well suited to give a general overview over the various aspects of the field of atomically precise manufacturing.

[[File:Possibility_space_overview_-_original_size.svg|750px|thumb|center|Main article: "[[possibility space]]"; (1) R&D with (1a) untargeted research discovering more surprising pathway entry points (1b) targeted engineering marching forward on identified pathway entry points; (2) [[Pathways to advanced APM systems|path]], especially [[incremental path]] with three technology levels ([[Technology level I|2a]],[[Technology level II|2b]],[[Technology level III|2c]]); (3) target backward [[preparatory design]] (4) far off target: [[Nanofactory|gem-gum factory]]; (5a) [[gemstone based metamaterial]]s, (5b) [[Products of advanced atomically precise manufacturing|advanced products]] and (5c) more abstract consequences ([[Opportunities|good]] and [[Dangers|bad]]) hard to quantify and blurring into speculation -- (green areas) [[Exploratory engineering]]. (dark green) known today.]]

The landscape is about the range of fundamentally possible of technologies.
The range of these possible technologies is determined by physical law.
Under the assumption that physical laws do not change in time or space, the fundamental potential of technology too does not change in time or space. (Assuming unchanging physical law should obviously make sense for all practical purposes. Side notes of little relevance on that [[Reliability of physical laws|here]]).

Uncovering the fundamental potential of technology is thus not about predicting the future as one might suspect.
It's about uncovering truths that where already there since the "dawn of time" (and which hold everywhere).

Specifically in the field of atomically precise manufacturing there is the unusual situation that some things that cannot yet be built or directly tested, can already be understood and simulated. Sometimes more reliably, sometimes less. Some major ones of those areas of investigation in the field of APM that feature this unusual situation are depicted as green "islands" in the landscape above.
When isolating a strategy to maximize the reliability of such predictions one ends up with the methodology of [[exploratory engineering]].