PSYCHOKINESIS 99
terials, such as meat and vegetables, and fabricate a human being in
nine months. The miracle of life is nothing but a large nanofactory capable, at the atomic level, of converting one form of matter (e.g., food)
into living tissue (a baby).
In order to create a nanofactory, one needs three ingredients:
building materials, tools that can cut and join these materials, and a
blueprint to guide the use of the tools and materials. In nature the
building materials are thousands of amino acids and proteins out of
which flesh and blood are created. The cutting and joining tools-like
hammers and saws-that are necessary to shape these proteins into
new forms of life are the ribosomes. They are designed to cut and rejoin proteins at specific points in order to create new types of proteins.
And the blueprint is given by the DNA molecule, which encodes the secret of life in a precise sequence of nucleic acids. These three ingredients, in turn, are combined into a cell, which has the remarkable
ability to create copies of itself, that is, self-replication. This feat is accomplished because the DNA molecule is shaped like a double helix.
When it is time to reproduce, the DNA molecule unwinds into two separate helixes. Each separate strand then creates copies of itself by
grabbing onto organic molecules to re-create the missing helix.
So far physicists have had only modest success in their efforts to
mimic these features found in nature. But the key to success, scientists
believe, is to create hordes of self-replicating "nanobots," which are
programmable atomic machines designed to rearrange the atoms
within an object.
In principle, if one had trillions of nanobots they could converge
on an object and cut and paste its atoms until they transformed one object into another. Because they would be self-replicating, only a small
handful of them would be necessary to start the process. They would
also have to be programmable, so that they could follow a given blueprint.
Formidable hurdles must be overcome before one could construct
a fleet of nanobots. First, self-replicating robots are extremely difficult
to build, even on a macroscopic level. (Even creating simple atomic
tools, such as atomic ball bearings and gears, is beyond today's tech-
terials, such as meat and vegetables, and fabricate a human being in
nine months. The miracle of life is nothing but a large nanofactory capable, at the atomic level, of converting one form of matter (e.g., food)
into living tissue (a baby).
In order to create a nanofactory, one needs three ingredients:
building materials, tools that can cut and join these materials, and a
blueprint to guide the use of the tools and materials. In nature the
building materials are thousands of amino acids and proteins out of
which flesh and blood are created. The cutting and joining tools-like
hammers and saws-that are necessary to shape these proteins into
new forms of life are the ribosomes. They are designed to cut and rejoin proteins at specific points in order to create new types of proteins.
And the blueprint is given by the DNA molecule, which encodes the secret of life in a precise sequence of nucleic acids. These three ingredients, in turn, are combined into a cell, which has the remarkable
ability to create copies of itself, that is, self-replication. This feat is accomplished because the DNA molecule is shaped like a double helix.
When it is time to reproduce, the DNA molecule unwinds into two separate helixes. Each separate strand then creates copies of itself by
grabbing onto organic molecules to re-create the missing helix.
So far physicists have had only modest success in their efforts to
mimic these features found in nature. But the key to success, scientists
believe, is to create hordes of self-replicating "nanobots," which are
programmable atomic machines designed to rearrange the atoms
within an object.
In principle, if one had trillions of nanobots they could converge
on an object and cut and paste its atoms until they transformed one object into another. Because they would be self-replicating, only a small
handful of them would be necessary to start the process. They would
also have to be programmable, so that they could follow a given blueprint.
Formidable hurdles must be overcome before one could construct
a fleet of nanobots. First, self-replicating robots are extremely difficult
to build, even on a macroscopic level. (Even creating simple atomic
tools, such as atomic ball bearings and gears, is beyond today's tech-