The conversation turns to nanomedicine, where Dr. Merkle describes artificial red blood cells that could carry enough compressed oxygen to keep a heart attack victim conscious and functioning long enough to reach an emergency room. He outlines how nanodevices equipped with onboard computers could identify and destroy cancer cells with pinpoint precision by monitoring multiple chemical signatures simultaneously.
Art presses Dr. Merkle on the dangers, including the theoretical "gray goo" scenario and weaponized nanotechnology. Dr. Merkle argues that broadcast architecture designs, where devices require external instructions to function, provide built-in safety. He also reveals his personal decision to sign up for cryonic preservation with Alcor.
Key Moments
Merkle co-invented public-key cryptography: Art's introduction notes that Merkle received his Stanford PhD in 1979 after co-inventing public-key cryptography - the foundation of essentially all modern secure internet communication, including encryption tools individuals can use to keep messages private even from governments.
How small is an atom: meter, millimeter, micrometer, nanometer: Ralph Merkle walks Art through the scale of nanotechnology - from a one-meter arm to a millimeter, then a thousand-times-smaller micrometer (only barely visible with the best optical microscope), and finally a nanometer, a billionth of a meter, where only a few atoms fit.
The scanning tunneling microscope: a sharp stick that moves atoms: Merkle explains that before 1981 manipulating individual atoms was considered crazy, until two researchers built the scanning tunneling microscope - essentially a 'really, really, really sharp stick' whose tip atom can be brought up to a surface to touch, see, and move single atoms.
Merkle on his own Alcor cryonics arrangements: Merkle reveals he is signed up with Alcor for neurosuspension - just the head - because it costs less and any technology that could repair freezing damage will also be able to regrow missing tissue. He frames it as a Pascal-style wager: two possible decisions, two possible outcomes, only one with upside.