StarDestroyer.Net BBS

The Grey Goo scenario is one where a nano-machine targeting specific atoms is improperly or maliciously programmed to attack organic atoms or all atoms, converting all usable material into identical machines which then consume all life on the planet. It's a doomsday scenario and is actually one of those threats that the Pentagon is looking at, even if the technology to build the machines themselves or combat them is still years away. It's a major threat because the nanomachines would, in theory, grow exponentially even from just one, because that one can still produce a second. Those two produce four, those four eight, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, 32768, 65536, 131072, 262144, 524288, 1048576, etc. And if just one survives, the cycle begins anew.

So we know from TNG: Evolution that even ensigns like Wesley Crusher have access to nanites that, on accident, were released. The intent was not malicious, but could easily have been. A lowly saboteur aboard a starship could easily release nanites that await a pre-set signal that then corrupts a computer core and destroys it, rendering the ship helpless. But that's small time if you apply the Grey Goo scenario to the situation, which could be devestating if released in a critical location such as engineering. With the abundance of metals and polymers and conductors in engineering or other key areas, nanites could easily grow out of control, especially if they reached the warp core.

And that's simply on a starship, which has forcefields and nanites that could potentially combat the invasion. Suppose these nanites were loaded aboard a missile and launched from a remote base from deep inside the heart of a foreign power, maybe with a cloaking device or shielding from sensors. The missile wouldn't be aimed at the heart of the Federation, but rather at the hundreds of remote colonies and outposts with little to no defense against them. The resulting damage would be incalculable, and would set back colony efforts for the good part of a century, not just in terms of the resources devoted to each colony, but also from now needing to defend each colony.

Such a weapon, if it could be disguised to prevent its origin (like a batch stolen from an unsecure Federation lab) would leave the Federation baffled and reeling. Even if a remote colony could defend itself, the damage to the local ecosystem would make the world barren. It's a situation that, quite honestly, would be frightening.

Electrical interference will do wonders killing those things. They will be so small that they will be very fragile. EMPs and what not should fry them easily.

Indeed. When Westly's super-nanites started running amok, the episode's guest star just radiation sterilized the area they were infesting. Painful as it may be to contemplate, a similar tactic worked just fine on borg nanoprobes in Enterprise.

Baffalo wrote: Suppose these nanites were loaded aboard a missile and launched from a remote base from deep inside the heart of a foreign power, maybe with a cloaking device or shielding from sensors. The missile wouldn't be aimed at the heart of the Federation, but rather at the hundreds of remote colonies and outposts with little to no defense against them. The resulting damage would be incalculable, and would set back colony efforts for the good part of a century, not just in terms of the resources devoted to each colony, but also from now needing to defend each colony.

Such a weapon, if it could be disguised to prevent its origin (like a batch stolen from an unsecure Federation lab) would leave the Federation baffled and reeling. Even if a remote colony could defend itself, the damage to the local ecosystem would make the world barren. It's a situation that, quite honestly, would be frightening.

You don't need to go to the trouble of snatching nanites; DS9 demonstrated that a rabble like the Maquis could effectively make many planets uninhabitable with a couple of hijacked freighters' worth of relatively benign materials.

If anything, it would probably be easier and safer to go the contamination route than with the nanites. You can just put on an environment suit to protect yourself against the chemical contaminants, you can blow all the air out of the ship if you need to, but you might well be fucked if the nanites get out on your ship