Subject: Re: XKCD - Nanobots

From: Michael Richardson <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:50:39 -0400

>>>>> "Bob" == Bob Hinden <[email-masked]> writes:
    >> I'm sorry, but how could this *not* be posted to the IETF list?
    >> 
    >> <http://xkcd.com/865/>

    Bob> I did a rough calculation and think they would have not run out
    Bob> of IPv6 addresses :-)

    Bob> I assumed a nanobot was 1 x 10^-6 M^2 and the surface of the
    Bob> earth was 5.1 x 10^11 M^2 (from Wikipedia).  This means it
    Bob> would take 5.1 x 10^17 nanobots to cover the earth.  The IPv6
    Bob> address space is 3.4 x 10^38.  Of course, I assumed only one
    Bob> layer deep.

Sorry for the late followup.

My reading of the strip was that the each colony of nanobots had to
exist in a single /64 subnet.  They would naturally use RPL and probably
6lowpan to communicate.  I don't think that having consumed a part of
the earth that the nanobot dies, it just becomes part of the routing
layer.

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From: Phillip Hallam-Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:20:33 -0400

Have you considered the possibility that you might be over-analyzing the
joke here?

On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Michael Richardson <[email-masked]>wrote:

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