If there are intelligent beings out there in space then space may well be full of nanobots.

If so then some may have fallen to Earth.


They may be self replicating or they maybe dormant or in between.

The answer may well be Blowing in the Wind.

Fear of runaway nanobots, or “gray goo”.

Nanobots have not been found; geologists and soil scientists would have detected them years ago.

Unless-
our current concept of nanobots might be wide of the mark. To perform chemical bonding using atomic postioning looks like being quite difficult and inefficient, if you are using non-biological devices. But nanoscale chemistry is commonplace in biological sytems- I have a feeling that most nanotechnology in the distant future will be at least partly organic. Genetic engineering and nanotech will converge.
So -
perhaps some or all viruses, phages, bacteria, prions - even ourselves- are decended from alien nanotech.
I doubt it, but I don't think we can tell at this stage.

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I have actually thought before that if we created a nanite it would probably look a good deal like a virus. Not to say Viruses are nanites; they just happened to randomly form over vast periods of time.

I think of Viruses as Natural Nanites .

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We should look for patent numbers encoded in DNA!

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0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0....

I thought that there could be some sort of message left in our or other organisum's DNA. Either from nanobot/viruses or implanted millions of years ago on an alien visit to the planet.

There is tons of junk DNA in all organisums IIRC.

That is not a bad idea since it would be easy to write a message in DNA.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx...ticleid=134442

Here's where to get the info from

http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresource...#nucleotideseq

Surely SETI or someone has tried - we would be looking for a prime number sequence in the junk dna or similar to start with which should not be hard to search for.

Taking C=0, G=1, A=2 and T=3 (all 24 possibilities have to be investigated)

Use 2-8 bases per number with reversal (check left right and right left), say we take 4 then we have

CCCA = 2
CCCT = 3
CCGG = 5
CCGT = 7 etc

We then just get out computer program to read the dna database and check for sequences like these.

There's prob more to it than that but I guess that would be the basics which is do able by anyone with a bit of patience and a pc.

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But wait... There's more!

and in the end...

The big bang, the creation of the univurse, us...

Is all just a calculation tht went wrong...

If a Civ is very advance they may have build stuff small than atom nanothingies.

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~Jorge Schrauwen

quarkobots?

We are made of nanobots.

I'd be more worried about picobots.

They're the ones that will be watching over the nanobots.

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"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients: matter, energy, and enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

It might not be all junk. From what I read, viruses that do not kill their hosts often introduce new DNA into the hosts that can be passed down to future generations of the host. Most of this is junk or harmless, but some may actually be the sources of variation (like mutations) upon which natural selection can act - for example, giving a host the ability to make a new protein.

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I suggested that they may come down in meteor like objects.

A single 'base' might be a foot across--look like a meteorite--and have holes in it with sugar filled fluids to draw insects in. Instead of pollen, the nanobots attach--and direct the behavior of the bug--which bites you at camp--and returns with a blood/flesh sample under nano-control...

--And all you see is a rock with a wasps nest--with wasps that seem really smart...

Assuming artificial, autonomous nano-tech works on any usable scale outside the warmth of biological processes...that is.