Phases
Philip Turner has described the phases for his goal of creating nanobots. I found it quite interesting. Probably I should do something similar, but considering I’m not using creepless LiNbO3. It will help me defer some requirements, which are not necessary right now, like scanning spectrography.
Phase 1: Working STM
Create an working STM. Not perfect to mass production. Super modular to amortize
unknowns. I will use some chips in the middle range. ICs too cheap may simply
not work due to performance reasons. And expensive ones are expensive and will
hurt if fail for some fundamental thing (like the parasitic capacitance in TIA).
It should be good to publish in the YouTube. I don’t like to admit, but I want
to be an youtuber like Nile Red. Not because I dislike the job or the ethics,
it’s just because it sounds like a terrible business plan to get people’s
attention with super deep science stuff. I still don’t get why would people with
no scientific or technical careers watch Thought Emporium, for instance. And I
want to become a millionaire, which is easier to get by hiring people to
advertise and just own the store.
Man, I will need to revise my personal stuff out of these documents.
Phase 2: Working AFM
It hurts to say, but it will take some time to get it working. Even deciding the
parts will take weeks of reading. My first design will account for AFM
requirements, but the modular design makes it more like just checking if the
controller has enough pins remaining.
AFM also takes a lot more of craftingship to get working probes.
Phase 3: Commercial product
Things will be a thousand times better if I receive money for working on it. It
will allow me to buy more parts to experiment, be confident I’m not a NEET
loser, and buy equipment for measuring things directly.
Do achieve this, I will create a project on Kickstarter, divulgate it on YouTube
and stuff, and sell units to people. I do thing it can get cheaper by buying in
bulk. Even if the materials just get to 75% of the prototype version, I guess
people are willing to pay for the guarantee of getting it working out of the
box. Having a standard process can save them time, and money from buy the
equipment for building it. Plus, there would some people who wants it without
the hassle of learning electronics and programming.
Phase 4: Moving atoms manually
This part is so difficult I don’t think much about it right now. It will
probably involve ultra high vacuum, and maybe some cryocooling. Ultra high
vacuum is ultra high hard to get. It does not allow things like plastics because
they release vapors which increase the pressure. It requires a large pump for
rough vacuum and large pump for knocking out individual molecules when it
doesn’t behave like fluids any more. Even measuring the pressure requires
specialized equipment since membranes don’t deform measurably.
Maybe I don’t need UHV if I just use carbon or use a hydrogen atmosphere. The
main problems are layers and layers of adsorbents and particles colliding all
the time. Carbon does not mix that fast with oxygen, and hydrogen does not
transfer much energy at once because it’s lightwave.
Phase 5: Moving atoms programmatically
Phase 6: Simple machines
Phase 7: Self replicating machines
Phase 8: Autonomous energy generation
Phase 8: Intelligence explosion
Phase 9: Expanding to space and beyond
Secret Phase: Robots overcome humanity
Wait, WHAT?!