Mini nukes and insect drones, nanotechnology will permanently change warfare and assassination

submitted by casparvoneverecBig tiddy respecter from self.debatealtright

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[–]WatchOutThere 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Imagine in the future, possibly just a decade or two away, a team of Chinese nanobot engineers develop a nanobot that can take materials from its environment to self-replicate itself. Everything seems fine and all tests carried out have been successes with no issues. However, as they begin production of these incredibly small machines, 1 of them out of the billions they produce is faulty. It starts rapidly self-replicating, ignoring all orders for it to stop. It's not long before the surrounding area is engulfed, and then the city, and then China, and then the world. Earth is relegated to nothing more than one giant nano-bot swarm. All life has ceased to exist.

What can you do to stop such a scenario? You can't nuke the place because you risk a few surviving. You could possibly deploy an EMP, but if these bots are being designed as weapons, then it is only logical to assume the designers would have made them impervious to such an attack.

The US, China, and Russia are all in the lead when it comes to the development of this technology and they might manage to have it under control, however, what's to stop a rogue group of individuals a few decades later creating their own with the sole intent of exterminating humanity? The more I look at this new emerging field, I can't help but feel our inevitable demise as a species is on the horizon.

[–]casparvoneverecBig tiddy respecter[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

why not make a counter nanobot against them? Plus, strong magnetic fields can break down the molecular structure of the machines

[–]WatchOutThere 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Fighting nano bots with nano bots would not work because it would be like fighting fire with fire. The enemy nano bots would greatly outnumber any countermeasure that could possibly be deployed due to the amount of time a response takes. The only way you could defeat a swarm is with bots that replicate much faster, but you won't have that opportunity because your tech is the one turning on you. Any bots you deploy against it would be identical.

For example, China messes up and a swarm is consequently consuming the country. They deploy the functioning bots, but their capabilities are the same as the foe and are already outnumbered by a huge margin due to exponential growth. The US has superior bots, however by the time the threat is realized and they can properly deploy the countermeasure, it is already too late. As for magnetic fields, you would have to destroy a sizable portion of the planet to get rid of all traces of the bots.