Nanites, Nanotechnology and their legality in the OTU

[Vanyon]

I know one of the staples of Traveller has mostly included that there is no widepsread use of it. I vaguely rmember it being mentioned it is illegal in the Imperium to have it and research it. I just cannot find where I read that.

I have most of the CT manuals and the Mongoose Trav books, and was wondering just how illegal is it?
Is it like illegal posession of Nukes?
If a preson were to have nanites within them for some reason, and it was detected would there be repercussions?

My question is brought on by the desire to write an adventure that would entangle the PC's in a web of illegal research in to an anagathic that is based on a nanite technology. It is something pirates have smuggled off of an illegal research station and would lead through a large plot.

However I want to know just how much trouble would be caused if one of the PC's turned everyone in for posession and possible infection.

 

[far-trader]

I don't recall any specific prohibitions, and there are even hints it may be in widespread use (advanced learning and healing applications) in the OTU.

I think it would be the application that would be a problem, not the technology itself.

I also think it's so ingrained and widespread in certain applications that it's practically invisible as anything special. Much like microchips today are everywhere and in everything but nobody says "hey that's a computer in my toaster".

 

[Renaissance Man]

I always assumed the substance "crystaliron" implies nanoscale fabrication techniques. Which puts industrial applications of nanotechnology at around TL10. When you think about it, nt is a convenient mechanism for explaining many technologies in the traveller universe.

 

[Vanyon]

Hmm ok, so then I will have no issues with the nanites themselves, which is ok with me.

Now I can continue the plot with the illegal drugs

 

[mike wightman]

I have long had the belief that one of the things GT says in a sidebar is the truth - nanotechnology is in widespread use in the background to make all that magical technology work (think of the drugs, they could be medical nanites).

The scare stories of today about the mishaps that nanites could cause are just plain wrong, nanotech is very useful in materials fabrication etc but as a doomsday weapon - forget it.

 

[kafka47]

In the second MegaTraveller Computer game...they did just become the doomsday weapon that has been cited in today's press...but I think it was green goo rather than the grey goo.

However, nuclear weapons are forbidden to be used in the theatre of war save by the Imperial Navy/Army. Nuclear devices as explosive devices (like they use in Switzerland or the former USSR) are legal. The boundary is hazy but perhaps like the guns in T4...all devices are manufactured with a microdot. I had wondered about nanotech and came to conclusion that microtech - a couple degrees above nanotech is permitted and widely used but nanotech in fantastic structures a la Ancients & Vau is expressly forbidden. Some say toe-mato others say tow-mato, what is important is that it is a fruit not a vegetable. So microtech might quack like nanotech without crossing that frontier.

 

[mike wightman]

Considering the amount of nano-manufacture in the real world today, and what is just around the corner, I would think that by TL15 you should be down to building designer atoms.

Part of the chemistry syllabus I teach now includes learning about nanomaterials - and that's for 14-16 year olds.

 

[Bishop Odo]

For the most part it seems the distain of nanotech is a reaction to the something for nothing magic of Star Trek, which I understand and agree with completely. But it’s foolish not to address the subject, especially since it hinted at so much. For example, in GURPS Humaniti, the Darrians have a TL16 mini factory that can take two nonfunctional TL16 junk artifacts and make one working item or model as long as it in the database of the factory. This strongly indicates to me the use of nanotech, but it others might see it differently.

I have been looking for rules, to adapt to nanotech Traveller, but the main point is not to hurt intergalactic trade, maintain copyrights and licensing for mega corps, and to control the weaponization or doomsday aspect of the technology. It can be done, but I just haven’t had the time to do it.

 

[Icosahedron]

I have been looking for rules, to adapt to nanotech Traveller, but the main point is not to hurt intergalactic trade, maintain copyrights and licensing for mega corps, and to control the weaponization or doomsday aspect of the technology. It can be done, but I just haven’t had the time to do it.

I've found that the best way to do this is the way it has been done in Traveller already - to introduce nanotech by way of manufactured items. The smaller the item, the larger the machinery needed to make it, so everything nanotech needs huge factories that are way beyond the means of any but the Megacorps, and the only stuff you see is the stuff the Megacorps market. The Imperium's control of the Megacorps will control the weapon aspect - just as it controls nukes.

That way, you don't need rules to govern its manufacture - that's a trade secret - and you don't even need rules to govern how it works. All you need is a description of the item and what it does and doesn't do - and there are no user-serviceable parts inside. In fact you probably can't get inside, nanotech artifacts are probably replaced rather than repaired.

'Yes sir, this nanite pill restores hair loss. No, it doesn't act as an anagathic or a flesh-eater, and even if you had an Imperial Nanotech Licence and the Giga Credits to build a thousand million dTon manufacturing complex, you'd still find it cheaper and easier to manufacture anagathics or flesh-eaters from scratch than to 'convert' this product.'

 

[Renaissance Man]

The first thing you've got to do if you want to cleanly put nanotech into traveller is abandon the Drexler. NT is not a major leap of logic -- life itself is a form of working nanotech and should be the principle source of inspiration for it. NT and advanced biotech are indistinguishable. So... nano engineered diseases? Yes. Substances with amazing properties? Yes. Incredibly small computers, electronic and mechanical devices? Oh yes. Instantaneous fabrication? Probably not. Gray/green goo? Not really a threat. It would happen too slowly. Nanotech still needs time and energy, just like any other process -- it's not magic.

The way I see it, most of the industrial base of planets from TL10 onwards are based on some form of nanotech. It becomes the main source of engineering and technological advances until the gravatic revolution. The entire ediface of traveller technology would come crashing down unless you had some process to control the purity of substances, and fabricate materials with extreme precision.

It's already been said -- nanotech is in the background, everywhere. Like plastics today.