Ecofagia
Este termo, cunhado por Robert Freitas em 2000, é frequentemente usado para significar (literalmente) o consumo de um ecossistema, e foi usado para descrever a nanotecnologia molecular que deu errado.
Freitas escreveu:
Perhaps the earliest-recognized and best-known danger of molecular nanotechnology is the risk that self-replicating nanorobots capable of functioning autonomously in the natural environment could quickly convert that natural environment (e.g., "biomass") into replicas of themselves (e.g., "nanomass") on a global basis, a scenario usually referred to as the "grey goo problem" but perhaps more properly termed "global ecophagy".
Some Limits to Global Ecophagy by Biovorous Nanoreplicators, with Public Policy Recommendations
O termo Gray-goo, no entanto, parece ser usado extensivamente no artigo para referenciar o fenômeno.