If these things were truly possible on Earth, chances are life-forms based on it would have evolved.
For mostly-self-sufficient organisms in earth's environment, the versatility of carbon appears to outperform silicon on every metric that counts.
The molecular complexity of a single human lung cell still absolutely dwarfs that of even the most modern CPUs we are able to manufacture (apple to oranges, but true).
They are not talking about developing a life based on silicon but about robots that can repair or improve themselves.
But also don't forget that evolution is not determinist : although you are probably right that silicon based life cannot exist, it's not because it doesn't exist that it is impossible
> The molecular complexity of a single human lung cell still absolutely dwarfs that of even the most modern CPUs we are able to manufacture (apple to oranges, but true).
What are you even measuring with complexity there? We don't go out of our way to make CPUs more complex, either chemically or in terms of circuits, their complexity is just what results from what we want them to do. What we want them to do isn't (yet) "reproduce" or "eat", unless you count the entire larger industrial ecosystem of which they are vital element as well as being a byproduct, as even this paper is in the hypothetical.
Looking at the abstract and skimming the rest, it is suggesting something involving a much bigger system than a silicon chip, but it's still more akin to how a virus hijacks the molecular processes of the actual factory (i.e. the cell it infects), or primates using bones as tools if you prefer a macro-scale analogy.
> First, robot metabolism cannot rely on active physical support from any external system to accomplish its growth; the robot must grow using only its own abilities.
Not only this is extremely restrictive, but it is in contradiction with the second point
> Second, the only external provision to robot metabolism is energy and material in the form of robots or robot parts.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 41.8 ms ] thread(One of my favorite Sci-Fi Young Adult series I read growing up)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortal_Engines
tl;dr = Post apocalypse, cities are giant mobile machines that eat and integrate smaller cities to survive
For mostly-self-sufficient organisms in earth's environment, the versatility of carbon appears to outperform silicon on every metric that counts.
The molecular complexity of a single human lung cell still absolutely dwarfs that of even the most modern CPUs we are able to manufacture (apple to oranges, but true).
But also don't forget that evolution is not determinist : although you are probably right that silicon based life cannot exist, it's not because it doesn't exist that it is impossible
What are you even measuring with complexity there? We don't go out of our way to make CPUs more complex, either chemically or in terms of circuits, their complexity is just what results from what we want them to do. What we want them to do isn't (yet) "reproduce" or "eat", unless you count the entire larger industrial ecosystem of which they are vital element as well as being a byproduct, as even this paper is in the hypothetical.
Looking at the abstract and skimming the rest, it is suggesting something involving a much bigger system than a silicon chip, but it's still more akin to how a virus hijacks the molecular processes of the actual factory (i.e. the cell it infects), or primates using bones as tools if you prefer a macro-scale analogy.
Not only this is extremely restrictive, but it is in contradiction with the second point
> Second, the only external provision to robot metabolism is energy and material in the form of robots or robot parts.