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==="Grey Goo" Scenario Concerns===

==="Grey Goo" Scenario Concerns===

The "Grey Goo" scenario refers to a worst-case prediction of self-assembling nanotechnology run amok.  The premise starts with the assumption that nano-scale machines could be built with the ability to break down substances and reconstruct the pieces into other structures, including copies of the nanomachine itself.  In an ideal situation you could place one in a garbage dump and program it to replicate itself as needed, break down and reassemble the matter in the landfill into something useful like bricks, and then deconstruct themselves when done.  In the "Grey Goo" scenario something goes wrong with the programming, and like cancer, all the machines do is break down objects to create more replicas, each with the same errant program.  Based on exponential replication, the entire planet could be broken down into a "Grey Goo" self-replicating nanobots in a matter of weeks or even days.  This scenario first reached prominence in a ''New York Times Magazine'' article by Lawrence Osborne titled "The Grey Goo Problem".<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E4DF163CF937A25751C1A9659C8B63</ref>

The "Grey Goo" scenario refers to a worst-case prediction of self-assembling nanotechnology run amok.  The premise starts with the assumption that nano-scale machines could be built with the ability to break down substances and reconstruct the pieces into other structures, including copies of the nanomachine itself.  In an ideal situation you could place one in a garbage dump and program it to replicate itself as needed, break down and reassemble the matter in the landfill into something useful like bricks, and then deconstruct themselves when done.  In the "Grey Goo" scenario something goes wrong with the programming, and like cancer, all the machines do is break down objects to create more replicas, each with the same errant program.  Based on exponential replication, the entire planet could be broken down into a "Grey Goo" by self-replicating nanobots in a matter of weeks or even days.  This scenario first reached prominence in a ''New York Times Magazine'' article by Lawrence Osborne titled "The Grey Goo Problem".<ref>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E4DF163CF937A25751C1A9659C8B63</ref>

This scenario is highly improbable since it requires a level of technology decades more advanced than at present, and the assumption that such advanced technology would not incorporate comparably-advanced safeguards.<ref>http://www.crnano.org/BD-Goo.htm</ref>

This scenario is highly improbable since it requires a level of technology decades more advanced than at present, and the assumption that such advanced technology would not incorporate comparably-advanced safeguards.<ref>http://www.crnano.org/BD-Goo.htm</ref>

===Health Concerns===

===Health Concerns===