Slashdot Mirror
Envisioning the Desktop Fabricator
mkl writes "Yesterday I fantasized about a generator of matter. Not a laser plotter for carving 3d objects, but a device that will assemble any given object from its base, out of atoms. I was thinking about a device that can find its place under the roofs of all the people working on PCs all over the world. So I fantasize about it at work and what do I see in the Wired News newsletter? 'Any product, any shape, any size -- manufactured on your desktop! The future is the fabricator.' Heh."
Yesterday I fantasized about a generator of matter ... a device that will assemble any given object from its base, out of atoms.
I also fantasized about a generator of matter, one that was able to generate Natalie Portman right in front of me complete with a handbag full of a strange gritty substance. Ooooh yeah.
I can fabricate the perfect woman! Now, where can I get one of these things?
Try actually thinking for yourself. It's quite refreshing.
Tea, Earl grey, Hot!
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
Imagine that, building the woman of your dreams one ATOM at a time - only to have her leave to find the man of HER dreams! something about my protruding teeth.. Young buck, Mr. Ed.
Smile.
the first thing i'd fabricate would be another fabricator.
.... and you thought Lexmark ink was expensive!!
sigs, as if you care.
But did Roddenberry get a patent on the idea..... never mind, gotta run..... have to get down to the office first......
Piracy - it's not just for software anymore...
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Calvin: "If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be?"
Hobbes: "Hmm..."
Calvin: "Anything at all! Whatever you want!"
Hobbes: "A sandwich."
Calvin: "A SANDWICH?!? WHAT KIND OF STUPID WISH IS THAT?!"
Calvin: "Talk about a failure of imagination! I'd ask for a trillion billion dollars, my own space shuttle, and a private continent!"
Hobbes: (eating sandwich) "I got MY wish."
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
For the most part your post was very interesting and informative, but at the end it just tailed off into inconsequence, as if you'd run out of ideas.
Clearly, you are indeed a scholar of Mr Stephenson's work.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Yeah, instead of Natalie Portman, you end up with Rosanne Barr! (Ewwww!).
No matter where you go... there you are.
Uhh NO one to make Dinner while the other fetches me a beer ;-)
---START SIG It is better to know that you have lost than to NOT know that you have won! ---END SIG
If of all the foods available, people start replicating McDonald's burgers, then there are larger problems in the world.
As for the whole world hunger thing... the problem isn't one of the volume or mass of food, it's a matter of money to purchase it or to ship it in a timely manner to where it's needed. If the people can't afford food, they sure can't afford a molecular manufacturing machine to "build" the food. Not to mention the energy to run the things.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Anyhow, on a post-apocalyptic Earth (as always) the saviors of humankind are these huge bloblike aliens who fabricate anything people want from them out of dust. Cars, houses, clothes, food, etc. Problem is people have been depending on these aliens for so many generations that they have no idea how make anything, and they aliens are starting to die off (and all the things the aliens conjured are falling apart)--panic ensues. Enter the hero who shows people an ugly, crude clay mug that he made himself.
[pink beam of light]