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?!