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 or popular-press 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 for other purposes, but designed to operate in a natural environment.
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 refered to as "grey-brown glop".
- In Stargate Atlantis and Stargate SG1, 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. 1
- In Ray Kurzweil's film 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.2
- 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 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 heavily featured in 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 Barney and Friends 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 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.
- 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.
See also
References
- ^ "At one time... [...] The lxians contemplated making a weapon—a type of hunter-seeker, self-propelled death with a machine mind. It was to be designed as a self improving thing which would seek out life and reduce that life to its inorganic matter. [...] The lxians do not recognize that machine makers always run the risk of becoming totally machine. This is ultimate sterility. Machines always fail...given time. And when these machines failed there would be nothing left, no life at all."—Frank Herbert, God Emperor of Dune (1981)
- ^ McCarthy, Will Bloom New York:1998—Ballantine Del Rey Books
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