> The ones on the edge will also be happily dismantling each other, and being
> dismantled by the ones in the middle. They also have to spend time making
Why should a grey goo be disassembling diamondoid? The only reason would seem to keep down the blue, which would require recognition. Notice that blue is static, as autoreplicating blue would seem to be basically undistinguishable from grey. Blue is brittle, and more complex than grey, so it will be outperformed anyway.
> more grey goo nanobots to form the new outer shell, while they're being
Why 'shell'? This is free environment. The grey grow as a thin layer over organical materials. Grey cannot function under anaerobic conditions. Of course distinct erosion pattern, or even cooperative behaviour could evolve, which transports oxygen actively within volume
> dismantled by the other nanobots, and while other nanobots are busily
> dismantling the new nanobots that they're trying to build. It's far from
> an easy task; nanobot reproduction will be hard enough in a stable
> environment, let alone when other hostile nanobots are dismantling what
> you're building as you're building it.
If the capability to erode diamondoid has evolved, the capability to thrive in unstable environments will not be long to follow.
> This whole idea seems an obvious non-starter to me as soon as you think
> about these problems.
Funny, I think the problem is at least nondecideable with our current knowledge. My intuition even tells me that grey has a slight or even noticeable advantage, which makes it fundamentally uncontainable once beyond a certain autoamplification stage.