If We Could Move/Reaarange Atoms/subatomic particles

[Spacescifi]

I had a question that I tried to answer elsewhere, but let's just say not all places have the same amount of knowledge floating around.

The question: Assume we had a device that created a spherical invisible field that could reaarange selected atoms at the subatomic level, or move groups of atoms in whatever direction... within the field.

 

What could we do and not do with it?

 

I will give it a try first:

Spaceflight applications: For every action there is a reaction, so sucking the air around the device downward should generate lift. Which means that all you have to do is strap a bunch of these to the sidewalls of a spaceship and it can lift into the air. You could stick some to the front and it could fly forwards, put some devices on the back hull etc. Unlike the hovering ships in scifi media, this one will have quite the air gust beneath it, so you would not want to be stand just below it for fear you would be blown aside. You could ascend until the air thins out, but after that you are back to nuclear fission/propellant, methalox, or LH/LOX rocketry or nuclear pusher plate. Pick one.

Commerce: Maybe alchemy becomes easier. Suddenly we can make new elements and states of common elements at a whim. Metallic hydrogen too, although I have a feeling you would need the mother of all anvils compressing it to keep it from exploding violently. One could even make new forms of clothing that have never been seen before. Same goes for many electronic devices.

 

Distant heating: One could put a device in a room and cook a hamburger patty 20 feet away. Simply by extending the field to encompass the beef and then by moving the atoms or subatomic particles inside the beef fast enough.

 

Fission/fusion: Please, please tell me the device could not be abused by creating nuclear fission or fusion with hamburger. I have a feeling I won't like the answer though. At any rate if so, uranium would no longer be special. Instead every power on Earth would be tripping over themselves to get a hold of the device or it's blueprints.

 

Medical: I am sure this will have many medical applications.

 

Nuclear Fusion: Why not? You would not have to worry about keeping the self sustaining fusion reaction compressed anymore. So long device is working the fusion will continue.

 

Radiators in space: Not sure how or if the device could improve radiator fins. I do know that heat makes atoms move around more, so with the device you could swap heat around the ship more efficiently, but you're still not getting rid of it any faster unless your radiators cover a sufficient area.

 

What could we not do: Sorry but warp drive is likely still out of reach since it requires exotic matter (negative matter) which may not exist IRL. Not sure if we can make antimatter with the device, but if so, the first nation that gets it will have the potential to be a superduper powet.

 

 

That's all I can think of, you can add to this or clarify matters as you wish.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[StrandedonEarth]

What if it could freeze atoms to be perfectly still, no thermal vibrations at all? In other words, hold them at absolute zero. That would be an excellent "cold side" for a thermocouple, for making use of waste heat. Of course, the device would probably consume more power than the thermocouple produces....

[Nuke]

if we could move atoms around we could make really fast computers one atom at a time. that or really small movies. 

[Superfluous J]

We could play SpaceChem for reals.

http://www.zachtronics.com/spacechem/

[kerbiloid]

We could turn clay into gold, sell it, and buy SpaceX to play KSP irl.

[Scotius]

Garbage management would become a lot easier. Trash comes in, useful materials come out.

[kerbiloid]

Toilet-kitchen recycling. Eat the pizza twice.

[SuperFastJellyfish]

 

[p1t1o]

15 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

<snurpt>

 

 

Many of these things run smack into thermodynamic problems.

You cant selectively move only hot particles for example, because simply by moving a particle, you are adding energy to it far in excess of what is making it hot. Ergo ANY particle you move is now hot. So instead of am improved radiator, you have new heat source instead.

It takes energy to look at an atom, and atoms are small, so this amount of energy is comparable to an amount that can effect the atom energetically itself.

Then it takes energy to grasp or move an atom.

Basically as soon as you put your hand int he mix, all bets are off.

 

Doing things at an atomic scale is not a magic spell to make everything better, some things are WAY harder in this way. And some things are impossible.

 

Grey goo (infinitely replicating nanobots) is/are a myth.

 

See: Maxwel's Demon

 

***

Unarguably, without a shadow of a doubt, the worlds most advanced nanotechnology - and a level of tech we will not be able to replicate for centuries - is the living cell. They do all the stuff we dream of (in exactly the WAY we dream of it - physical machines built from atoms) and instead of working with them, we try and brute force it with machinery. Microbes are things to be killed and cleaned, not replicated and respected.

Biotech will become much more prevalent in the next 50 years, mark my words.

In the next century, cleaning products will contain bacteria, organs will be grown wholesale and technologically advanced construction materials extruded from vats.

All things we wish we could do with nanobots.

Edited February 18, 2020 by p1t1o

[kerbiloid]

The OP question still stays unanswered because everyone who had successfully rearranged water nucleons  to make deuterium, then tritium, first of all tries to rearrange them like it's shown in the physics schoolbook.

Then a new experimenter tries his luck somewhere.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, p1t1o said:

Many of these things run smack into thermodynamic problems.

You cant selectively move only hot particles for example, because simply by moving a particle, you are adding energy to it far in excess of what is making it hot. Ergo ANY particle you move is now hot. So instead of am improved radiator, you have new heat source instead.

It takes energy to look at an atom, and atoms are small, so this amount of energy is comparable to an amount that can effect the atom energetically itself.

Then it takes energy to grasp or move an atom.

Basically as soon as you put your hand int he mix, all bets are off.

 

Doing things at an atomic scale is not a magic spell to make everything better, some things are WAY harder in this way. And some things are impossible.

 

Grey goo (infinitely replicating nanobots) is/are a myth.

 

See: Maxwel's Demon

 

***

Unarguably, without a shadow of a doubt, the worlds most advanced nanotechnology - and a level of tech we will not be able to replicate for centuries - is the living cell. They do all the stuff we dream of (in exactly the WAY we dream of it - physical machines built from atoms) and instead of working with them, we try and brute force it with machinery. Microbes are things to be killed and cleaned, not replicated and respected.

Biotech will become much more prevalent in the next 50 years, mark my words.

In the next century, cleaning products will contain bacteria, organs will be grown wholesale and technologically advanced construction materials extruded from vats.

All things we wish we could do with nanobots.

Agree, however you can cheat Maxwel's Demon style if you are willing to use far more energy outside the box, the trick to get down to an 0.00001 K uses this slowing atoms with lasers. 
And yes grey goo would just be another type of life, it would need an energy source and it would not be very efficient as it mutated from some other systems who would be designed for one task in an nutrient bath. 

Biology  has the idiotic high profit and fairly low hanging fruits of stuff like cure cancer pills and radical life extension. 

 

[p1t1o]

On 2/19/2020 at 1:42 AM, magnemoe said:

Agree, however you can cheat Maxwel's Demon style if you are willing to use far more energy outside the box, the trick to get down to an 0.00001 K uses this slowing atoms with lasers. 
And yes grey goo would just be another type of life, it would need an energy source and it would not be very efficient as it mutated from some other systems who would be designed for one task in an nutrient bath. 

Biology  has the idiotic high profit and fairly low hanging fruits of stuff like cure cancer pills and radical life extension. 

 

Essentially, we are what a "runaway grey goo" event looks like

Even down to evolution into higher forms. A "nano"-machine built out of atoms absolutely would suffer from random mutations and evolution.

[magnemoe]

34 minutes ago, p1t1o said:

Essentially, we are what a "runaway grey goo" event looks like

Even down to evolution into higher forms. A "nano"-machine built out of atoms absolutely would suffer from random mutations and evolution.

Yes, however its pretty easy to make something with less chance of mutating than dna. Dna is raid 10 or in two copies but very close together and not raid 10 during cell division. 
Add error correction on top, perhaps have 3 copies. Now to prevent mutation you could also compress and encrypt the build code, this way if its too damaged to restore an exact version of the file you could not pack it out. 

 

[Nuke]

you could probably construct cellular machinery to constantly scan dna and error correct it every time it splits, spewing out a corrected strand. perhaps have a little self destruct gene that gets triggered if an error is detected. such that a bacterium with good code can split, and one with bad code can not. so either the cell does its job or it dies.

[GluttonyReaper]

2 hours ago, Nuke said:

little self destruct gene

Which seems like a great idea until that gene mutates and ceases to work, disabling the self-destruct, and it might not be long before that leads to a strain with a higher survival rate than the original

[kerbiloid]

An nanofactory moving from cell to cell and replacing their DNA with a manufactured DNA molecule without scanning.

Also this opens a door to multi-DNA species. Eyes from mom, nose from dad, hair from (you don't know that guy). Ears from cat.

Edited February 21, 2020 by kerbiloid

[p1t1o]

FunFact: your cells' dna repair mechanisms .ake thousands if corrections (totalled in whole body) per *second*, IIRC