On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 12:29 PM, Anthony Jackson <ajackson@iii.com> wrote:

Actually, it's usually called bacteria. And, well, aside from deliberate weaponization, unlikely to be any more dangerous than the stuff that's already out there.



The sort of biological nanorobots which could be responsible for a "grey goo incident" would pretty much *have* to be weaponized, wouldn't they?

I mean, they're intentionally designed to break other cells down into their component chemicals. So they must - by definition - be equipped with machinery to penetrate cellular defenses.  What creates a "grey goo incident" is these machines mutating to break down every cell, rather than just those (such as cancer cells) against which they were actually targeted.
   
--
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein
"A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice." - Bill Cosby
"We know a little about a lot of things; just enough to make us dangerous." Dean Winchester