Meeting notice: The 01.11.20 meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Royal 
East (782 Main St., Cambridge), a block down from the corner of Main St. 
and Mass Ave.  If you're new and can't recognize us, ask the manager. He'll 
probably know where we are.  More details below.

<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> 

Suggested topic: Nanotechnology and Harry Potter

Fermi's Paradox has an overlapping correlate re time-travel: if time 
travelers are possible, where are they?  Stating the paradox spotlights 
the next question: How would we know them were we to see them?  

For one point, we would expect them to use nanotechnology.  In that light 
it is interesting how many of the features in our wizard, worlock and witch 
myths are compatible with what one would expect to see in a nanotech-
competent time traveler who was interested in wandering around the 9th or 
10th century but had no intention of enduring the privations that were the 
routine lot of the citizens of the time.  Such a person would need both 
some simple way of fabricating toilet paper, etc., and of rationalizing its 
existence to whoever might see it, especially if they saw it seem to appear 
out of nothing.  

The wizard myth seems to work. One would expect such persons to have the 
power to construct almost anything with a pinch of powder or a few drops of 
'potion'. Naturally they would tell the most preposterous stories about the 
composition of those powders -- what are they going to say?   Speech 
interfaces would be exceptionally convenient.  The commands themselves 
would be in an exotic tongue to prevent nosy help from hijacking the 
technology on their own.  With nanotech many of the classic wizard stunts, 
like conjuring up a vision of a behavior at a distance -- would be 
simplicity itself.  Why are these visions so often represented inside 
crystal balls as opposed to free standing optical phenomena?  Could it be 
because enclosed space is a necessity for a holographic display?  Finally, 
one notes that Merlin was supposed to travel backward in time.  Where did 
that come from?

Where did the wizards go?  As time wore on perhaps living conditions became 
more tolerable, until by the Enlightenment the wizard game could be dropped 
altogether.  Or perhaps civilization got so developed, and therefore so 
boring, that the tourists just stopped coming. There is a reason why the 
Society for Creative Anachronism has not extended its interests much past
the 16th century...

<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> 

Simon and I have compared notes and we agree that the cuisine at Royal
East has fallen far from its old standard.  We think the time might have come
for a move.  Reactions?



<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> 

In twenty years half the population of Europe will have visited the moon.

				-- Jules Verne, 1865

<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-> 

Announcement Archive: 
http://www.pobox.com/~fhapgood/nsgpage.html.
	
<-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><-><->

Legend:

"NSG" expands to Nanotechnology Study Group.  The Group meets on 
the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the above address, 
which refers to a restaurant located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  

The NSG mailing list carries announcements of these meetings and 
little else.  If you wish to subscribe to this list (perhaps 
having received a sample via a forward) send the string 
'subscribe nsg'  to majordomo@world.std.com.  Unsubs follow the 
same model.  

Discussion should be sent to nsg- d@world.std.com, which must be 
subscribed to separately.  You must be subscribed to nsg-d to 
post to it and must post from the address from which you 
subscribed (An anti- spam thing).

Comments, petitions, and suggestions re list management to: 
nsg@pobox.com.