[H-GEN] RepRapping in Brisbane!

[Robert Brockway]

On Sat, 29 Mar 2008, gavin duley wrote:

I wrote:

>> - simple reduced production rate
>> - kill switch with a human finger on the button
>> - kill switch activated under certain predetermined conditions
>> - lifespan limiter (perhaps like a telomere)
>
> Or how about:
>
> - They only create new copies of themselves when *explicitly* told to.

Hi Gavin.  This is a good one but the key point is that the exact 
population containment methods are immaterial.  Perhaps I deflected from 
the original discussion by even mentioning possible population containment 
methods.

_Any_ set of conceivable methods could all fail simultaneously and this 
only needs to happen once for an exponential population explosion to 
occur.

This is the root of the problem: If we make something which can self 
replicate exponetially then sooner or later it _will_ become a problem.

Cheers,

Rob

-- 
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine..."
 	-- RFC 1925 "The Twelve Networking Truths"