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Part of a series of articles on Molecular Nanotechnology

Molecular assembler Mechanosynthesis Molecular machine Productive nanosystems Nanorobotics K. Eric Drexler Engines of Creation Grey goo

See also Nanotechnology

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Grey goo is a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario involving molecular nanotechnology in which out-of-control self-replicating robots consume all matter on Earth while building more of themselves—a scenario known as ecophagy ("eating the environment").

The term grey goo is usually used in a science fiction context. In the worst postulated scenarios (requiring large, space-capable machines), matter beyond Earth would also be turned into goo (with goo meaning a large mass of replicating nanomachines lacking large-scale structure, which may or may not actually appear goo-like). The disaster is posited to result from a deliberate doomsday device, or from an accidental mutation in a self-replicating nanomachine used only for other purposes, but designed to operate in a natural environment.

The term grey goo was coined by nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation.^[1]

Contents 1 Grey goo in science fiction 2 See also 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External links

[edit] Grey goo in science fiction

• In 'Uncalculated Risk' (Christopher Anvil, (c) 1962 by Conde' Nast Publications Inc.) a scientist creates a soil treatment ("Catalytic Texturing Agent") that (if overdone) converts adjoining good soil into more of the bad, catalyzed soil. The over-catalyzed soil is referred to as "grey-brown glop".
• In Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG-1, Replicators are seen as a problem, with the ability to destroy and eat all matter. Grey goo is seen in Stargate Atlantis when Rodney McKay produces a replicator that attracts all other replicators to make an unstable grey goo mass.
• In Frank Herbert's Dune series, a weapon is being researched at one point which would be "a self improving thing which would seek out life and reduce that life to its inorganic matter." Though not nanotechnological in nature, the autonomous but unthinking threat is similar.^[2]
• In Ray Kurzweil's book The Singularity Is Near, a computer avatar called Ramona discovers that some nanorobots could destroy the world if not stopped.
• In Wil McCarthy's sci-fi novel Bloom, Earth's ecosystem is destroyed within hours by a grey goo, annihilating all biological life. The grey goo then develops its own unique "ecosystem." The only human survivors are colonists who flee to the outer solar system. The book's protagonists come from Jupiter's moon Ganymede.^[3]
• An episode of Xavier: Renegade Angel showcases a similar event in which a person was raised on lizards and starfish gains the ability to regenerate limbs. However, he commits suicide and splits himself in half repeatedly, creating millions of tiny clones that form a grey goo and destroy everything in its path.
• Although not strictly speaking science fiction, Jasper Fforde's Lost in a Good Book features a narrowly-averted apocalypse in which all biological life in the world would be converted into "Dream Topping" (a pink whipped cream-like substance) by overenthusiastic nanomachines.
• In the intro to the video game Deus Ex: Invisible War, a villain uses a nanite detonator, wiping out the entire city of Chicago with a goo-like substance that seems to freeze/destabilize anything it comes into contact with.
• Self-reproducing nanorobots were the subject of Michael Crichton's novel Prey.
• In Greg Bear's novel Blood Music, simple biological computers evolve to become self-aware "noocytes," which assimilate most of the biosphere of North America before abandoning the normal plane of existence.
• In Universe at War: Earth Assault, Novus uses a megaweapon called the grey mass launcher, which turns a territory in global mode into a "grey mass."
• Smoke's ending in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon describes grey goo originated from his own nanotech constructs consuming the realm of Edenia.
• In Walter Jon Williams' novel Aristoi, Earth was destroyed by grey goo (codenamed "Mataglap") and it is used to destroy an asteroid installation owned by the protagonist.
• In the made-for-TV film Path of Destruction, accidentally released grey goo causes weather problems.
• In John Robert Marlow's novel Nano, the invention of self-replicating nanites results in a team of assassins hired by the government on the hunt for a scientist and reporter, nearly ending in the destruction of San Francisco by "incorrectly programmed" grey goo.
• In Gargoyles episode "Walkabout," a sentient nanite swarm called "The Matrix" is confronted in the Australian outback.
• In the book Specials by Scott Westerfeld the characters Tally Youngblood and Shay use grey goo to break out of the armory in New Pretty Town.
• In Moonseed, the 1998 book by Stephen Baxter, the Earth is consumed by a grey goo-type substance inadvertently imported from the Moon.
• In the game Outpost 2, the faction of Eden is experimenting on a way to terraform the new planet they have settled to support life. Suddenly the experiment goes horribly wrong and a nanotechnology/terraforming virus is released, eventually taking over the planet and causing the survivors to work together in order to build a new spacecraft to leave the planet to find a new one.
• In the BBC's 2005 version of Quatermass, a brief reference is made to grey goo as the scientists watch the rapid reproduction of spores under a microscope.
• In the Justice League Unlimited Season 1 episode "Dark Heart," many of the Leaguers fight the eponymous ever-expanding entity. Created from technology of another planet to attack and quickly destroy their enemies, the Dark Heart turned against the own planet which created it, due to it not knowing that the war was over. With both planets annihilated, the entity traveled the universe until eventually reaching the Earth. It was destroyed by The Atom, who caused a "heart attack" of sorts to stop the Dark Heart from feeding itself on the dark matter which, aside from serving as its blood, allowed it to replicate at astonishing speeds. Unable to endure such a critical condition, the Dark Heart exploded, stopping its self-replication for good. The entity is then confiscated by the U.S. military for weapons research, much to the chagrin of Superman. Sure enough, the same nanobot technology reappears in JLU's 2nd season finale, "Divided We Fall", when a merged Brainiac and Lex Luthor steal the technology and assimilate it into their own body. They are able to effectively fight off the entire founding roster of the Justice League by manipulating the nanobots to create various constructs and assimilating entire parts of Metropolis.
• In the TV series Lexx, the universe is completely transformed into "one-armed Mantrid drones", which are considerably larger than nanotechnology. Luckily, there's still a parallel universe.
• In Daniel Keys Moran's short story, "On Sequoia Time", a giant Sequoia tree is the last surviving living organism on Earth after a grey goo release. Moran is the author of The Tales of the Continuing Time series.
• In the TV anime series Blassreiter by Noboru Kimura, and Shu Hirose, an epidemic caused by the introduced nanomachines into human body creates evolved mechanical humanoid creatures, which makes people lose sanity and go berserk and infect the humans interacted.
• In the French animated series, Code Lyoko, Jeremie Belpois, a young, intelligent programmer for the ma(goo)in group, releases a grey goo-esque program onto Lyoko, a virtual world within the series. This program, named the "Marabounta", eventually goes haywire and begins to consume all of Lyoko. This "Marabounta", although based on the real-life event (also known as "Marabounta", where South American army ants go on a violent rampage), exhibits many of the characteristics present in the classic 'grey goo.'
• In the books "The Tenth Planet, 1999", "The Tenth Planet: Oblivion, 2000" and "The Tenth Planet: Final Assault, 2000" by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Christopher Weaver, Rand Marlis aliens harvest biological matter from huge areas on earth using nanorobots. When all matter is consumed, the bots dies, leaving a black sooth layer to be retrieved by the aliens.
• In the movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), gray nano insects are released from GORT to consume everything on Earth.
• In the anime Digimon Tamers, a grey goo-like program (which began as a means to limit the existence of digital monsters), named the D-Reaper, materializes in the Real World and begins consuming the town of Shinjuku, Japan.
• In the Ben Bova universe, nanotechnology has been banned on Earth for fear of attack by such programmed nanomachines, despite the other multitude of benefits provided. Bova often uses nanomachines as a plot tool to kill/save characters, several of which have been 'eaten' by carbon dissociating nanomachines.
• In the game Tasty Planet the user must control a 'grey goo', an 'Ultimate Bathroom Cleaner', which according to the game's plot, was developed in the 'Nano Research Headquarters' to eat all the dirt and bacteria in one's bathroom. By moving the grey goo around the aim of the game is to reach a certain size at each level by eating various objects of the game field.
• In the manga Battle Angel Alita: Last Order it is revealed that centuries in the past, a mad scientist subjected the - then partly colonized - planet Mercury to a grey goo scenario, resulting in the total conversion of the planet´s surface, its permanent quarantining from the rest of the solar system and the evolution of an independent nanomachine-based ecology. These new life forms eventually attempt to contact mankind in their own, bizarre way, namely by dispatching an `ambassador´ which (or whom) appears to parody the most basic human instincts of reproduction and survival.
• In the Dreamwave iteration of the comic Transformers, the Decepticons release a pseudo-organic, cybernetic virus which feeds on energy and consumes Earth´s environment at a rapid rate, converting it to one that is compatible with Transformer biology rather than organics.

[edit] See also

• Self-replicating machine
• Ice-9
• Midas touch
• Precautionary principle
• Self-replicating spacecraft
• Technology assessment

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

• Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations
• Nanotechnology pioneer slays "grey goo" myths Paper critical of "grey goo"
• Online edition of the Royal Society's report Nanoscience and nanotechnologies: opportunities and uncertainties
• Goo and Paste Directory
• UK Government & Royal Society commission on Nanotechnology and Nanoscience