n-sf: Nanotechnology in Science Fiction #17

Phillip Thorne (thorphi@marcam.com)
Thu, 26 Sep 1996 09:57:32 -0400 (EDT)

TNG 3.01 Evolution
*** mm

	Wesley is experimenting with "nanites", nanotechnic robots
	designed         to enter cell nuclei for medical purposes, to
	see if they can cooperate to improve their behavior.  He falls
	asleep and his two test subjects escape their container.
	Embarrassed, he starts placing Roach Motel(tm)-like traps
	around the ship, but by then they've found their way to the
	computer core and are replicating, consuming the isolinear
	chips and developing a hive intelligence.  Dr. ???, a prominent
	astrophysicist, is skeptical of the crew's findings of the new
	nanite life form.  He tells them he's seen the factory where
	nanites are manufactured; they're just machines!  Desperate to
	regain computer control in time to complete his life's study a
	nearby neutron star, ??? kills some of the nanites using a
	gamma pulse.  They respond by taking over the ship.

	Eventually, Data opens communication with the new intelligence.
	He allows some of them to enter and interface with his systems
	(as they were originally designed to do), so that he can be
	used as a communications channel.  ??? apologizes, an agreement
	is reached, and the nanites rebuild the computer in time to
	launch ???'s probe.  Finally, ??? uses his influence to have a
	barren asteroid designated the new nanite homeworld.  "This
	ship is -- too confining.  We require -- relocation."

TNG 4.01 The Best of Both Worlds, Part II
** mm

	While discussing possible strategems against the Borg, Dr.
	Crusher proposes using their "recent experience with
	nanotechnology" to breed a form of nanite to attach the Borg
	collective.  The development would take two to three weeks,
	however.

TNG 7.01 Descent, Part II
** mm?

	Data's brother, Lore, has been experimenting with converting
	newly individual Borg into fully artificial lifeforms.  He
	convinces Data to join in the experiments, and to inject
	"nanofibers" into Geordi's brain.  These fibers will learn to
	emulate his neural firing patterns, leading to a marked
	increase in cognitive ability -- if he survives.

Star Trek Generations
** mm?

	In the course of his interrogation of LaForge, Dr.Soran injects
	a "nanoprobe" into his heart.  Upon his return to the
	Enterprise-D, Dr.Crusher removes it.

DS9 1.8 The Passenger
** mm

	An infamous Kobliad scientist is being transported as a
	prisoner, when he stages his own apparent demise and transfers
	his consciosness to Dr. Bashir.  The instrumentality used is a
	microscopic (probably nanotech) electrical generator under his
	fingernail, which during physical contact impresses a
	copy of his mental patterns onto Dr. Bashir's glial cells.

DS9 1.12 Battle Lines
*** mm?

	Sisko, Bashir, Kira are persuaded to take Kai Opaka through the
	Celestial Temple into the Gamma Quadrant, where they're forced
	to crash on a barren moon by its system of weapons satellites -
	- and the Kai is killed.  There they find a colony of prisoners
	from opposing sides of an ancient war, still fighting and
	killing each other -- each time to be reborn.
	Dr.Bashir discovers that microscopic machines, "almost like
	nanites", infest the moon.  They're designed to rejuvenate the
	dead, so that their torturous prison stay can continue
	indefinitely.  Kai Opaka is also reborn by the devices, and
	when the others are rescued, she elects to stay with the
	prisoners and work with them to overcome their hatred.

DS9 2.13 Armageddon Game
** b?

	Dr. Bashir and Chief O'Brien are assisting a Gamma Quadrant
	civilization in safely destroying a (biological?) weapon known
	as the "Harvesters."  Once the weapons are destroyed, the
	rulers decide to eliminate anyone who knows how to construct
	them, too.

DS9 (2.24, The Collaborator ?)
** ?

	Major Kira is reluctant to allow Vedek Winn off the station, to
	return to her political machinations on Bajor.  She insists
	that Winn's ship must be scanned for any weapons or contraband,
	including "a molecular scan for dangerous nanotechnology."  She
	admits she's no expert, but the scan could take weeks.

_Federation_
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
*** mm

	At some time prior to the TOS era, an alien race called the
	Grigari offered "eternal life to the worlds of the Federation"
	with their medical nanotechnology.  It was found to be
	hideously flawed; the machine-organic connection was imperfect,
	so the machines continually moved forward, replacing necrotic
	tissue with steel.  The Grigari departed, but a quadraleptic
	Colonel Adrik Thorsen, obsessed with revenge on Zefram Cochrane
	, seeks them out. By 2270, Thorsen is barely human, with arms
	that subdivide (as with a Moravec bush robot) into the
	nanometer realm, and the ability to dispatch subunits to
	infiltrate Starfleet computers and archives.
	Other references in the novel:
	By 2078, the new human extrasolar colonies were developing
	specialities, such as "molecular computer farms" in Wolf 359's
	Stapledon Center.  When the Enterprise-D acquires an apparent
	Preserver artifact with complex mathematical diagrams engraved
	in it, Picard is reminded of recordings on early Terran space
	probes: analog audio and video disks, then diffraction bars,
	and finally "molecular bristle tubes."  Data and  Wesley probe
	the inscriptions with "elaborate molecular probes," and Wesley
	suggests creating a specialized form of nanite to examine its
	interior.

TOS _Crossroads_
???
** mm?

	In the future, "the plague" rips through the Federation and
	other civilizations.  A corporate group called Starfield
	develops "wiring," a form of "non-ferrous nanotechnology" that
	interfaces with the spinal cord and psionic centers of the
	brain, controlling the disease.  When damaged, wiring regrows
	its fibers, drawing minerals from the blood.  Starfield evolves
	into The Consilium, an ostensibly peaceful company that in
	reality controls Starfleet and the Federation via the wiring
	of officers and officials.  Rebels escape into the past through
	the spatial anomaly known as the Crossroads, and encounter Capt.
	Kirk and the _Enterprise_.  They don't know exactly who, but the
	person whose work led to wiring and Starfield is onboard, and
	they mean to stop him.

TNG _Vendetta_
Peter David
** mm

	Several months after "The Best of Both Worlds", the Borg have
	returned to Federation space, more cautiously and with additional
	ships.  Geordi is astonished when Riker tells him that the
	Federation Council has assigned legal advocates to the Nanites,
	so they're no longer available as weapons.  In defense of the
	decision, Riker references the recent legal decision that Data
	was an independent life form with self-determination ("The
	Measure of a Man"), and that the Borg could possibly even
	assimilate the Nanites' abilities.

TNG _Dark Mirror_
Diane Duane
** mm

	The Mirror Universe introduced in the TOS episode "Mirror Mirror"
	is preparing to invade us.  Captain Picard manages to infiltrate
	the mirror-Enterprise-D.  He acquires a poorly-guarded container
	of non-sentient nanites from their Sickbay, and programs them to
	search out and slowly consume their computer core.

Project G.eeK.eR
(First broadcast 9/21/1996)
*** mm

	Geeker, Lady MacBeth and Noah escape to Space Station Zebra.
	Zebra maintains its independence from Moloch-dominated Earth
	using its "nanosynthesizer", a device that consumes cosmic dust,
	converts it to elementary particles, then reconstructs them into
	food, clothing and machinery.
	Moloch sends "Larry," an artificially-engineered intelligent
	strain of the common cold, to take over the refugees on Zebra
	and recapture Geeker.  In fact, all Larry wants is to exist
	without the need to infect host bodies.  Geeker happily obliges
	by dividing himself into billions of tiny duplicates to construct
	a micro-city for the Larry germs, complete with a tiny
	nanosynthesizer.
	Geeker and company flee Zebra to lead away Moloch's space forces.
	Larry comes to their aid with thousands of tiny nano-manufactured
	space battleships.  Moloch's forces depart when Geeker apparently
	surrenders himself -- actually a (non-nano) decoy duplicate.  He,
	Becky and Noah depart, and Zebra is left secure.


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Appendix 4 - Foreign Language Section (non-English)

[Foreign language entries are OK *if* you send me the text to be included _verbatim_. An English translation of the title would be nice. Note that this list is represented in standard 7-bit (128 character) ASCII. -ASN]


++  Danish                                ++
============================================

"Den perfekte verden" (The perfect world) "Udkig" (Outlook) no. 3, 1985
Arne Herlov Petersen

"N{ste kasse til Singapore" (Next box to Singapore) "Udkig" no. 4, 1988
Arne Herlov Petersen

"Haabet er groent" (Hope is green)
collection, 1991
Arne Herlov Petersen



++ Lem, Stanislaw 1921-, Polish writer. ++

Can someone please clarify which of his books have been translated into English, and, if the subject matter is plain biology, micro machine or "nano a la Drexler". One book that has been mentioned is Peace on Earth, English version C1994.