The concept of self-organizing tendencies, although touched upon in domains such as physics, chemistry, search methodology and biology, has recently gained increased acceptance owing to discoveries in nanotechnology and astrophysics. Advances in nanotechnology are rapidly expanding the scope of understanding of the fundamental mysteries of this universe.
Biology is introduced here as a possible example of a quantum-level self-organizing effect. The use of this quantum self-organizing effect will most certainly initialize a paradigm shift in how things are manufactured and will offer a pathway to technological advancements in many areas of science as well as possibly heralding the emergence of a new domain of science. At a fundamental level, the elements needed to repeatedly manufacture any complex structure or device, biological or non-biological are:
•Design
•Raw Materials
•Energy
•Tools
In conventional manufacturing, the design may be taken from a simple idea, a CAD file or a set of complete design parameters. The raw material may be iron, copper, or silicon or any number or combination of materials selected to meet the design requirements. Energy may be in the form of thermal energy, kinetic energy, photonic energy or other. The tool may be a drill, a hammer, a laser or some computer-controlled machine such as a 3D printer. But no matter what the tool, it can be said that having the right tool is critical to a successful manufacturing process. In the case of biology, we understand that the design is somehow chemically encoded, such as with DNA. The raw materials are environmental gases and generally water-soluble elements. The energy is chemical and possibly electrical. But what tool is used to assemble an eye or lung tissue with such precision, the seemingly infinite range of biological structures? Other than saying it is a biological function, science has very little in the way of explaining the biological manufacturing process.
There is increasing empirical evidence that the existence of a self-organizing mechanism is at work. While my efforts are not connected to biology at present, the mimicking of biological replication in non-biological manufacturing is one of the general directions of this project. After much effort, my research has yielded a standardized process for the controlled production of various crystalline and non-crystalline nanostructures based on the quantum self-organizing tendency. The system uses an acoustically-driven plasma generator to vaporize the seed material. An elaborate system of field generators is used to control the reformation and/or the deposition of the vaporized materials. The intent is to carry out a clearly defined set of experiments designed to first offer proof of the existence of a quantum-level self-organizing effect, and then to produce a set of precise primitives composed of different materials using this effect. The knowledge gained from these experiments will hopefully serve as the basis for a new control language to be used to manufacture a wide variety of unique materials and high-precision primitives that could eventually lead to the production of complex products, even biological structures.
Submitted by Robert Bishop, Winchester, VA, US
www.createthefuturecontest.com
