SCP-118

[tmazanec1]

http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-118

I am currently going through the SCP Foundation website. Most of the stuff on the site is fictional paranormal (ie impossible) entities, locations and phenomena but a few look almost plausible with Clarkean Magic.
Could a microbe like this be gengineered in 10601 AT?

[Drashner1]

http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-118

I am currently going through the SCP Foundation website. Most of the stuff on the site is fictional paranormal (ie impossible) entities, locations and phenomena but a few look almost plausible with Clarkean Magic.
Could a microbe like this be gengineered in 10601 AT?

Hm. Something in the form of either a hylonano swarm or some kind of bionano system could likely be created. I don't think it would work exactly as described in the article (e.g., extracting metal for a bomb casing seems unnecessary if the goal is just to generate a fission explosion - coral or the like seems like a better and easier choice), and the time frame is iffy - lots of metals and other elements are in sea water, but they are very diffuse. The result might be something like a huge algae bloom that creates some kind of coral like structure that produces a bomb or the like and takes a while to do it.

My 2c worth,

Todd

EDIT:

Thinking about this further, some kind of organism that extracts material from sea water (and the air probably) to produce a chemical explosive of some kind (and in quantity) is probably both easier, faster, and nearly as dangerous if you have enough of it. While not as spectacular as a nuclear explosive, in large enough amounts it could severely disrupt shipping or endanger coastal communities if it washed ashore.

[stevebowers]

I remember reading some speculation about this by Anders Sandberg. It seems doable, but it would take quite a long time, andd during that time blue goo defences might be able to detect the bloom and neutralise it. But some bombs might be completed - the terror aspect of such a weapon could be worse than the actual damage caused.

[rom65536]

Thinking about this further, some kind of organism that extracts material from sea water (and the air probably) to produce a chemical explosive of some kind (and in quantity) is probably both easier, faster, and nearly as dangerous if you have enough of it. While not as spectacular as a nuclear explosive, in large enough amounts it could severely disrupt shipping or endanger coastal communities if it washed ashore.

Biologically producing a high explosive is quite do-able. But honestly, if you want to disrupt coastal communities, fishing and the like - just a good old fashioned red tide is the way to go. And if you give the red algae some khaki nano capability to attack opposing tech and hamper clean-up or bio-remediation, and make it grow really fast....
As far as terror weapons, "First Plague in a Can™" is pretty darn good.
Give the red tide algae a "stealth phase" where it silently reproduces without being noticed until it reaches some pre-determined concentration, and then it weaponizes, and you've got some badness waiting for a nefarious mustache-twirler to dump in the ocean.