> "Gordon D. Pusch" <g_d_pusch_remove_undersco...@xnet.com> wrote in message
> news:c1892v02f7n@enews3.newsguy.com...
> > Mr. Marlow's book and interviews _GROSSLY_ overstate the maximum
possible
> > rate that rogue nanobots can replicate. Based on extremely general
> physical
> > principles, such as the conservation of energy and the limits of
available
> > energy vs. the characteristic energies of chemical bonds, Dr. Robert
> Frietas
> > has shown that the maximum possible "biomass to nanobot" conversion rate
> of
> > self-replicating nanobots cannot possibly be greatly larger than that of
> > already-existing self-replicating organic lifeforms such as bacteria, so
> > that far from "destroy[ing] the planet in a matter of days," the
timescale
> > for complete "ecophagy" (conversion of the entire biosphere into
nanobots)
> > is in fact quite long --- on the order of _TWO YEARS_, not two days.

> I read somewhere that assemblers should be able to replicate themselves in
> about 20 minutes, and that given enough raw materials and energy they
would
> be able to fill the solar system in a matter of days.