Apocalyptic Events 2: Gray Goo Theory and The Grain Situation

Strange Matters Podcast

Campfire Audio Productions

Science, History, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences

4.4 • 987 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2016

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

This follow up to the original “Apocalyptic Events” describes two utterly hopeless situations that involve the end of humanity as we know it. Eric discusses a famous end-of-the-world scenario that has been described in numerous films known as the “Gray Goo Theory:. Nanotechnology is at our fingertips and as we develop and advance into the realm of science, the possibilities for the application of nanotech become endless. Nanotechnology is currently in use today, especially in the medical field. However the inception of nano-sized robots has led to the concept of these robots being programmed to breakdown matter on a molecular level and use this matter to construct duplicates of itself. These cold, emotionless “assemblers” are unable to differentiate between right and wrong and simply do what the only thing they know: tear apart everything and use it to produce more nanobots that then repeat the sequence. This situation would spiral out of control as more and more nanobots destroy the world and replace it with a gray flowing mass of nanobots held together by its own massive gravity. Is this possible? What can we do to stop this from ever happening?

The “Grain Situation” is a much slower process that involves the development of genetically modified or GM crops. These crops are engineered to be resistant to pesticides, insects and extreme temperatures. They require little nutrients to flourish and are capable of growing on almost any surface. In this apocalyptic event masses of genetic crops, whether it be grain or something else, take over the surface of the planet. This could lead to famine, fires and even an ice age as the fires produce massive quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere. But what are the odds of this happening? Has this event already occurred in the world? Check out this episode and find out all about these two theories for yourself!
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Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Strange Matters Podcast, where we discuss anything that is bizarre, strange, and unexplained.
0:27.0	I'm your host for tonight, Eric, and this episode is a follow-up to our last apocalyptic events episode and I'm going to be discussing two new theories
0:36.6	describing the potential end of the world as we know it.
0:40.4	Now I apologize for all of our end of the world fans as we haven't done an apocalypse
0:46.0	episode in a while. However tonight I am planning on hitting everyone pretty hard with
0:50.8	a couple of exotic theories. Now to reiterate what we have
0:55.2	said in our last apocalypse episode there are a lot of people out there who tend to
0:59.6	romanticize the concept of the end of the world.
1:03.0	In popular culture, this has led to the production of tons of new movies and TV shows that revolve
1:08.8	around this concept, whether it be zombies in World War Z and 28 days later or aliens in War of the
1:16.7	worlds and the day the Earth stood still. We always seem to be curious how we would
1:22.3	measure up in a life or death situation where everyone else
1:25.8	in the world is losing their minds. This fear and mystique inspires some to stock up on supplies and construct underground bunkers.
1:35.0	However, the following apocalyptic event leaves little purpose for any sort of preparation.
1:41.0	So let's get into it. The first theory about the end of the world
1:46.4	is known as the Gray-Goo theory. And this theory is probably one of the most awe-inspiring in my opinion and yet the most terrifying
1:55.2	in a sense because there's no possible escape from this apocalyptic event.
2:00.7	So this means that all those doomsday preppers out there would unfortunately stand no chance against this end of the world scenario.
2:09.0	Now the phrase was first coined by Eric Drexler in 1986 and it revolves around the concept of our ever-expanding
2:16.0	desire to grow our own science and technology.
2:20.8	As our knowledge of the universe expands, we are able to do more and more remarkable things.
2:27.0	This leads us into the realm of nanotechnology.
	...

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