Do you think nanotechnology is considered old hat in the Star Wars galaxy?

[Maximum77]

Here on Earth, nanotechnology is an emerging tech. We are just starting to use the applications of nano-particles, and we are close, but not quite their yet to developing nanites that can swim in a person's bloodstream and fight disease. In Star Wars, believe it or not, nanotechnology is mentioned in both Legends and Canon and since I am going to stick to canon; in a Clone Wars episode, a criminal fed her husband nanodroids which turned him into a living bomb. Nanotech was also briefly mentioned in some of the canon books. Someone on FFG forums, once brought up to me that nanotech is probably ubiquitous in SW. Its all aound them (like the Force ) and nobody really gets a big "Oooh" out of it anymore. Its as unremarkable as a combustion engine. I LOVE nanotech and before my uncle died; he said that nanotech would be the next driving force in the world. He didnt know their are hypothetical techs that are smaller like pico and femtotech. So what do you guys think? Is nanotech pedestrian and commonplace in Star Wars, and are scientists in SW shifting their attention to picotechnology or femtotechnology? All hypothetical of course.

[factotum]

The whole point of the Star Wars universe is that *all* techs are old hat to some extent--they haven't significantly advanced in tech in thousands of years, they just keep cycling through the same stuff. Nanotech thus undoubtedly exists but isn't used because either they have better ways of doing it, or it isn't part of the current technological fad.

[jayem]

It's very divided in it's tech line (depending on what makes the best film).
You'd assume a technology that had routine faster than light travel would have some kind of nanotech.
On the other hand if you had nanotech, why is that spy drone so big.

It's not consistent, but in a way that gives us DOGFIGHTS IN SPACE!

[gomipile]

The whole point of the Star Wars universe is that *all* techs are old hat to some extent--they haven't significantly advanced in tech in thousands of years, they just keep cycling through the same stuff. Nanotech thus undoubtedly exists but isn't used because either they have better ways of doing it, or it isn't part of the current technological fad.

I thought the point of the top post was: What if nanotech is used all the time in the movies we've seen. What if a lot of the tech in the movies actively uses or is manufactured with nanotech, but we just didn't notice for the same reason you could walk around a modern city for days without hearing the word "transistor."

My interpretation of the OP is: Are the movies we've seen consistent with the ubiquitous application of nanotech that no one feels the need to talk about?

[factotum]

My interpretation of the OP is: Are the movies we've seen consistent with the ubiquitous application of nanotech that no one feels the need to talk about?

Well, the only thing I can think of that might be significant there is the healing tank thing Luke was put in at the end of the second movie...for all we know that could have been nanotech of some sort.

[Peelee]

Well, the only thing I can think of that might be significant there is the healing tank thing Luke was put in at the end of the second movie...for all we know that could have been nanotech of some sort.

Bacta is canonically a healing liquid, though, and not nanotechnology.

Though, for an amusing take, we could imagine that Vader's stolen data tapes which contained the Death Star plans may have been nanotechnology, if only so there's no more obsolete computing term that makes me chuckle every time I hear it.

[DataNinja]

Though, for an amusing take, we could imagine that Vader's stolen data tapes which contained the Death Star plans may have been nanotechnology, if only so there's no more obsolete computing term that makes me chuckle every time I hear it.

"Where are the plans, Rebel Scum?"

"Hold- hold on. It's right on the... tip of my tongue."

[KillianHawkeye]

Bacta is canonically a healing liquid, though, and not nanotechnology.

Yeah, but does being a liquid really preclude it from being a solution of medical nanites? I mean, they never really say what bacta IS, do they? Not in the movies, at any rate (and nothing else counts).

[Peelee]

Yeah, but does being a liquid really preclude it from being a solution of medical nanites? I mean, they never really say what bacta IS, do they? Not in the movies, at any rate (and nothing else counts).

Pretty sure the TV shows do. At the very least, they're doing their damndest to make them count.

Yes, this is another toot toot on The Mandalorian hype train.

[Mechalich]

Nanotechnology is a broad term, since it merely references to processes that happen at a certain operational scale. Star Wars clearly has certain kinds of nanotechnology - like precision crafted components that are invisible to the naked eye, incredibly compact batteries capable of providing a shocking amount of power, super-advanced microfibers used to make armor components, and a bunch of other stuff. What it doesn't have is late-stage 'grey goo' self-replicating, make-anything nanotech.

There's a couple of reasons for this. For one, Star Wars materials technology is built around super-advanced alloys and compounds that are extremely rare. The main components of durasteel - which largely takes the place of actual steel in Star Wars - are a bunch of rare made-up minerals that apparently only occur as ores in certain star systems. This supply is sufficiently limited that a lot of the stuff in Star Wars is made out of recycled material (something that the MMO SWTOR makes quite clear) that's been scavenged from the previous iterations of society. Secondly, the core technologies of Star Wars, such as hyperdrives and shields are Rakata-origin tech and the human-dominated Republic society only ever reverse engineered them highly imperfectly (because the Rakata tech was explicitly force-based and the non-force versions don't quite work properly). As a result they represent black boxes that really can't be upgraded because the fundamental principles behind how they work aren't actually understood. The Rakata certainly had advanced nanotech - a Sith Empire research team accidently unleashed some on Tatooine and it almost turns the entire population into Borg-zombies before the Outlander stopped it, among other examples, and the Gree probably did too, but humans struggle to understand the universe through the Gree framework (purple nonagon and all...) and therefore can't properly duplicate Gree technologies.

This sort of working with technologies you don't entirely understand is extremely common in Star Wars. A lot of the engineering we see on screen represents technicians manipulating all the various appendages they've strapped to various black box core systems they can't actively adjust, which results in over-engineered mess. This sort of thing is growing more common in the real work. A Tesla, for instance, is built around a computer that, unless you have access to Tesla's proprietary software, you can't get into. You could almost certainly use that computer to run something that wasn't even a car though, which a sufficient amount of jury-rigging, and that's kind of what happens in Star Wars.

[factotum]

Though, for an amusing take, we could imagine that Vader's stolen data tapes which contained the Death Star plans may have been nanotechnology, if only so there's no more obsolete computing term that makes me chuckle every time I hear it.

We actually saw those "tapes" in Rogue One, and they looked pretty much as you'd expect! Certainly far larger and bulkier than any reasonable high-tech data storage device ought to be.

[Peelee]

We actually saw those "tapes" in Rogue One, and they looked pretty much as you'd expect! Certainly far larger and bulkier than any reasonable high-tech data storage device ought to be.

Because of all the nano tech in it!

[Mechalich]

We actually saw those "tapes" in Rogue One, and they looked pretty much as you'd expect! Certainly far larger and bulkier than any reasonable high-tech data storage device ought to be.

While the tapes were indeed bulky, it's worth noting that the actual data they contained compressed down to the size of a very reasonable wafer following transmission. This suggests that the files on Scarif were stored in some sort of extremely bulky durable archive format for either security reasons or as a matter of imperial archival policy. For instance, storing data on a physically larger medium reduces the natural data loss the extremely compact storage media incur due to being so close to particulate size limits. It is totally within character for the Empire to mandate some ludicrous standard like 'these files must be able to last for a million years' in a sop to Palpatine's arrogance.

[Spore]

Secondly, the core technologies of Star Wars, such as hyperdrives and shields are Rakata-origin tech and the human-dominated Republic society only ever reverse engineered them highly imperfectly (because the Rakata tech was explicitly force-based and the non-force versions don't quite work properly). As a result they represent black boxes that really can't be upgraded.

Do you know anything about Sith holocrons, or data storage in Star Wars? Because unlike nanites and nanotechnology, it can be based on energy states (similar to new quantum computation) and has no need to be physical.

However I feel there is much insight (or confusion) with the fact that Star Wars regularly is unable to share critical information via even system-wide holonet. Like, why didn't Leia just upload her star destroyer plans onto some sort of server, to retrieve it later? Instead yeet the only copy onto a dusty rock, saved on a century old astromech droid likely to malfunction on a desert planet.

[deuterio12]

However I feel there is much insight (or confusion) with the fact that Star Wars regularly is unable to share critical information via even system-wide holonet. Like, why didn't Leia just upload her star destroyer plans onto some sort of server, to retrieve it later? Instead yeet the only copy onto a dusty rock, saved on a century old astromech droid likely to malfunction on a desert planet.

In the other hand the empire can send drone probes all over the galaxy and when one finds the rebel base it can report right away from long distance from some backwater system.

So I would guess the empire has some super jammers that allow them to supress the rebel's communications while maintaining their own.

[Peelee]

So I would guess the empire has some super jammers that allow them to supress the rebel's communications while maintaining their own.

The communications grid is the HoloNet, which is controlled by the Empire. So while you didn't have a good description of how they do it, you did have a good description of the overall effect

[Mechalich]

Do you know anything about Sith holocrons, or data storage in Star Wars? Because unlike nanites and nanotechnology, it can be based on energy states (similar to new quantum computation) and has no need to be physical.

Holocrons are based on datacrons, a Rakatan force-dependent technology. You can't build a holocron unless you can use the force, and in many cases can't even access one. Star Wars technology is divided into technologies that are dependent upon the force and those that are purely conventional.

The communications grid is the HoloNet, which is controlled by the Empire. So while you didn't have a good description of how they do it, you did have a good description of the overall effect

The holonet is constructed of automated communications satellites that are permanently suspended in Hyperspace through which messages are routed. This system requires constant, dedicated maintenance. It's actually one of the key services provided by the galaxy-spanning government in Star Wars. The Empire controlled this entire network and could put up firewalls, restrict access from unapproved communication systems, and throttle non-military traffic to a crawl. Basically the Empire could, and did, do all the things your average totalitarian state does regarding internet access, only because they were the only game in town workarounds like VPNs and so forth were not available.

You can contrast this with the situation in SWTOR, where the Republic kept the holonet open during its conflict with the Sith empire, and therefore Sith agents with properly encrypted communicators (meaning your PC if you play on the Empire side) could remain in contact with their superiors while conducting operations in Republic space.

[BWR]

On the other hand if you had nanotech, why is that spy drone so big.

Probably because it needs lots of power for a robust propulsion unit, a communications array that can transmit FTL messages to report findings, a small blaster for self-defense, and manipulators of reasonable size to be of use, a suite of decent sensors, armor, etc.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

we are close, but not quite their yet to developing nanites that can swim in a person's bloodstream and fight disease.

We have nanomedicines. They're on the market. They just don't look and work like people expect them to.

While we can manually move around atoms and molecules with for instance electron microscopes (used improperly) it's no use trying to make anything useful that way. Because if you want something useful on a human scale done by objects in the nano size range, you're going to need a lot of them. Lots and lots and too many by far for even the best tiny assembly lines. If you want to make useful nanotechnology, you need stuff that is self assembling, and that means you need to think and work like a chemist, not a car mechanic. So we use structures made up from lipids like micelles and liposomes (fun fact, there is no consensus in the field on how that word is pronounced), mimicking the membranes around our cells. There are polymeric nanoparticles too, which can for instance be made from polymers made up of a central hydrophobic chain flanked by two hydrophilic chains. Metal particles are used, viral envelopes are hijacked, buckyballs are an option, or you can even just bind your drug to an antibody. But none of those options look like robots.

And it isn't much use to make them look like robots either. Sure, we have little molecular motors now, molecules that can react with energy-rich molecules in the environment to move in a predictable manner, pushing themselves forward. But even if you attach that to a nanoparticle, how do you steer it? And I'm not just talking about the physical maneuvering parts, but how are you going to get it to track a certain destination and plot a course? So we're back to thinking like chemists. Targeting is done with things like antibodies, nanobodies, antigens, lock and key mechanisms, the way our biology does it. You have the particles float around the blood until they meet a molecule they recognize. And on a nano-scale, that works. Because there are so many particles, and because everything moves around all the time."

And for the foreseeable future, that's how nanomedicines will work. (I'm oversimplifying of course, there are a bunch of medical applications of nanotechnology that work differently, like say completely ordinary looking pregnancy tests that don't require any particles to be injected into your bloodstream.) No robots making tiny stitches. That wouldn't even be a useful thing on this scale anyway.

Does it work differently in Star Wars? Who gives a crap? Pew pew pew! Look, a space battle! Star Wars and science don't really mix.

But if you want to write about a scientist in Star Wars working on nanobots, knock yourself out. Just write it.

[Yora]

Star Wars tech is frozen in 1940s tech IN SPACE! Technological progress is antithetical to Star Wars.