Defeating Nanobots

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
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I’m fascinated by this query. Basically, he wanted to know if the nanobots were in his body, how could he get rid of them. His thought was something to do with blowing up his microwave. (Ummmmmm. . .hmmmmnnnn)

I think the basis of the microwave idea is probably an imperfect understanding of electromagnetic pulses. Basically, a strong electromagnetic pulse can re-set the ROM of a computer, thus turning modern cars, boats, computers, etc into so much expensive sculpture. I doubt that something as small as a nanobot would have circuits capable of being re-set in this manner. It takes too much space and would increase the size too much.

Defeating the nanobots would be better achieved I htink by the combination of vitamin C and a strong earth magnet.

Most nanobots are powered by metal reacting to changes in temperature. Theoretically (or perhaps by now, practically it’s been a while since I researched the subject) as the bot circulated through the blood stream it would reach points of differing temp and the metals would expand or contract, producing the energy which the bot then uses to perform it’s (in this case) nefarious work.

If this metal were magnetically reactive, a simple response would be to place a strong earth magnet on your wrist, and trap the bots there until their other parts wore out (or until the surgeon finished sawing your arm off . . .).

If the metal were something like copper (a popular choice) then it would be harder. I’m thinking vitamin C because it’s the strongest oxidant I know of which is not also poisonous. The idea would be to oxidize the metal before the bot could complete it’s aforementioned nefarious purposes. If it were possible to introduce something like hydrogen peroxide without killing off too many red blood cells, that would be a better solution.

Another way to “power” nanobots is through the slow degradation of organic compounds, usually sugars or starches. In this case, the best bet would be to isolate one (they should be present in a blood sample) and identify the enzyme which would most quickly break it down. If the bots were, in fact, powered by an enzyme, we go back to vitamin C which would increase the acidity of the internal environment (we’re talking mass doses here, no, you wouldn’t be feeling too good) and speed the degradation of the organic compound.

It’s a really cool question! Any other thoughts out there? Am I even more behind the times of nano design than I realize?

And does this lend credence to the claims of those quacks who sell magnetic bracelets and ankle bands? Could their research be showing the effects of their merchandise defeating run-away nanobots?

Ummmm . . . Hmmmmnnnnn

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http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2838/can-cryogenic-cooling-miraculously-improve-car-parts-sports-equipment-and-musical-instruments
(Add-on question beginning at QUESTIONS WE’RE STILL THINKING ABOUT)

It’s worth noting that any malevolent corporation worth it’s Illumanati dues would never program nanobots to sever one’s spinal nerves! It is to laugh.

Better to invade the Neocortex and create an army of Microwave exploding techno-zombies.

Duh!

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I would focus on defeating whatever measures the nanobots use to prevent your immune system from destroying them.

Also, if the bots were temperature-sensitive as you suggest, inducing a fever could be effective.

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If they’re going to sever your spinal column at the end of the week, just keep setting the clock back.

5

Most??? Nanobots do not currently exist. The Wikipedia entry agrees with me.

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What about taking a cue from nature? Our immune system, if I understand it correctly from high school biology, is constantly pumping out myriad mostly-useless white blood cells that kill random arrangements of viruses and other foreign invaders. WHen a white blood celll turns out to be the right “shape” to attach to a foreign invader, it replicates until the invader is destroyed, and the successful pattern is “filed away” for future use.

Fight nanobots with nanobots, like nature, only better. A class of surveilling nanobots looks for invader nanobots and analyzes their structure, outputting results to an external machine that can design a counternanobot that attaches to, and neutralizes, the invader.

Daniel

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Yes, this is what I was thinking - evolution has probably found most of the “good tricks” for building machines at that scale, so I would expect man-made nanobots to be less like normal-scale machines and more like biological organisms. Maybe we could fight them with vaccines or something like antibiotics, just as we do for viruses and bacteria.

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I’m actually thinking that it could be extremely hard to prevent the body’s various systems from destroying the nanobots in the first place. We think of machines as being generally immune to biological attacks, but does that still hold true when the machines are no larger than red blood cells? Besides the immune cells that actively attack foreign bodies, there are also the myriad enzymes that the nanobots would run into during their travels, any of which could stick to the bots and gum up their workings. Then there are the various biological filtration systems: what if the bots just wound up getting trapped in the liver? And once you’ve designed them to avoid all those hazards, you have to make sure they aren’t inherently toxic, or else you’ve just created a needlessly expensive poison.

I suspect that any nanobot that could actually be injected into the body and work successfully would have to be so complexly and delicately engineered that it would be easy to defeat.