Chris Interviewed On Gray Goo

The SETI Institute has a radio program called "Are We Alone?" and this week's broadcast covers slimy things - from slime mold, to gray goo.

Click on "You've Been Slimed" on their home page to hear the interview [mp3]. My segment starts 28:00 in and runs to 36:08.

In the introduction, before they start interviewing me, they assert that gray goo is a risk of molecular manufacturing, since molecular manufacturing will, they assert, require self-replicating robots. I wish they hadn't done that, but I suppose they wanted to make gray goo sound scary enough to be worth talking about.

I think I did a pretty good job of explaining that molecular manufacturing will involve large (human-scale) factories full of inert tools - no self-replicating robots at all. I gave a bit of history of the gray goo concept: why it was originally a concern of Drexler's, and how and why his thinking changed about the way molecular manufacturing would be implemented.

I expect I'll be doing a lot more public speaking in the future. Any advice on how to present myself or my ideas will be much appreciated.

Chris Phoenix

Comments

[Baughn]

That "listen now" link is a bit broken, I'm afraid. Try clicking on it. :P

[Chris Phoenix]

Thanks. I'd hit "copy image location" not "copy link location." It's fixed now.

Chris