Submitted by Rezeno56 t3_10nat66 in singularity
In order to reach post-scarcity, a nanofabricator is needed that can assemble anything from raw materials to useful things like food, tech, clothes, and etc. Once AGI is created at some point in the future, the field of nanotechnology will accelerate. In turn, will result the creation of the nanofabricator.
A video below as an example:
What people call replicators in scifi
It would be a massive game changer
I hope they are not managed by big tech with the usual scammy programs and subscriptions
Where you get the shitty free version with imprinted commercials and ads or low quality
Or if you pay lots You get the Gucci ad free one
Or is it going to be like a game Where you have to unlock gears and qualities as you complete environmental missions
Can’t we just do for once something nice for everyone?
It’s all about money right now. If you let the people make anything then manufacturing companies, farmers, and a whole slew of other industries will go out of business.
That has to be offset by something, which will likely be the distribution of raw materials. Imagine the “carbon guy” showing up to deliver your weeks order of carbon for the fabricator.
As mentioned elsewhere energy is a massive aspect of this, these machines will likely need a lot of energy to work. Not sure you’d be able to just plug it in to your wall socket. That will likely mean the manufacturing companies will use them first as they’d have the resources to set up the energy requirements. But the fiat may be so high that just paying people to do it is better.
This was posted 15 years ago. Is it ready yet
Nope. Probably won’t be ready in the next 15 years either.
Chuck it in the "ready in: NEVER" bucket along with fusion and ftl.
A funny thing happened on the road to the Nanotechnology Research and Development Act
A nanotechnology based fabrication technology would be beneficial to the development of a post scarcity society, but not essential.
Why do you think it won't be essential? Coz of UBI and UBR?
We have the technology now to provide for all, we simply choose not to. Free health care in the United States, functioning in a manner similar to that common in the European Union, is possible, but the majority choose not to allow its introduction.
The singularity will hopefully be the catalyst for the social change, and social expectation, that will be the foundation for the development of a post scarcity civilization.
there will also be genetically modified organisms that we use as tools but that’s when things are gonna get weird. like growing chairs and other furniture from seed
They can assemble ANYTHING, though?
Only small stuff.
Small products can easily be assembled into larger objects - especially when the interfaces between parts are using nanotech to bond to one another.
So if I want a warehouse full of Chevy Novas what should I do? Cry?
Drexler outlines a vision for a nano-printer at the scale of a garage wall that can crank out a fully assembled, ready to drive new car every 15 minutes.
Helpful no doubt but not needed. A changed economy would do it. One example to sustain post scarcity without nanofabricators is to limit the amount that an individual can request. So imagine that on your app or when you go eat at a restaurant imagine instead of say it cost 5 dollars it says 5 daily. Meaning you can only get that item 5 times a day.
[deleted]
The way the video describes such a machine would be so impossibly impractical. Moving parts are a nightmare to deal with, one little breakdown of any of those nanoscale moving parts would cause the entire thing to stop working correctly.
A more practical design for a nanofabricator wouldn’t brute force atoms together with nanoscale factory machines, but would instead use precision lasers to both breakdown the starting molecules and as a catalyst to overcome the potential energy necessary for atoms to bond in a particular configuration.
Not even to mention the scaling issue with the machine approach, with precision lasers, it’s infinity more scaleable and to scale up all you would need is more lasers that work in coordinating.
Correct, which is why the video shows an example of what a nanofabricator will look like. Nanofabricators in the future, will not look like that in the video.
You are going to need massive amounts of energy for that to work. Better get that cold fusion reactor working first.
Or bodies do it for organic materials on a pretty cheap energy budget.
Our bodies don't do alchemy. I'm talking about turning sand into gold.
We don't need agi
agonypants t1_j68f0og wrote
Over the past 20 years or so I've become convinced that people alone are not yet smart or skilled enough to produce this kind of technology. The technology is absolutely achievable. The most compelling example of this kind of "tech" is biology itself - living, growing things. Cells turn nano-scale work into macro-scale products every single moment of every day. People, working together under a large-scale, coordinated effort can eventually create machines capable of this same feat. But...I think we will need AI assistance to get there. My hope is that an AGI can assist us on the path to this goal within the next several years. But without AGI, I fear it will be a long time.