https://titotal.substack.com/p/diamondoid-bacteria-nanobots-deadly

I wrote this article a month or two ago, thought people here might be interested. Drexler-style nanotech research appears to be effectively dead at the moment.

Oh, and Yudkowsky responded to the article with characteristic obliviousness:

I broadly endorse this reply and have mostly shifted to trying to talk about “covalently bonded” bacteria, since using the term “diamondoid” (tightly covalently bonded CHON) causes people to panic about the lack of currently known mechanosynthesis pathways for tetrahedral carbon lattices.

    • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems
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      1 year ago

      I believe the standard answer is that Superman would initially defeat Goku, but that would only make Goku stronger.

      edit: Sorry I mean, there is a 96% chance that Superman would initially defeat Goku. However, this would increase Goku’s power by several orders of magnitude, increasing his chances of winning. Each subsequent fight that Goku loses would increase his power recursively, which can be modelled as f(x) = a * 10^(dx). In the limit, Goku wins.

      • sc_griffith@awful.systems
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        1 year ago

        Prior belief: Superman has a 96% chance of defeating Goku.

        Evidence examined: According to TVTropes [1], when Goku is defeated he becomes stronger.

        Update to belief: It is reasonable to infer that Goku will become infinitely strong. Further, if the conflict takes place one or more years from the present, Goku is likely to have access to an artificial intelligence which either itself defeats Superman or which advises him in effectively defeating Superman. I therefore now assess that Goku has a 95% chance of winning.