Thursday, September 27, 2012

A Decentralization Mechanism


They can already print guns with these tools--the Syrian insurgents could use a few. The legal obstacles are significant, though probably hard to enforce, as with other forms of digital piracy. Also, the right materials to produce goods remain necessary and can be a major part of the cost. Environmentally, over-enthusiastic home manufacturers could be a problem.

The last bit about the "replicating rapid prototyper" has particular potential.

The nanotech promoters have been speculating for decades (starting with Feynman back in 59') about nanomachines that can create new molecules and chemicals and replicate themselves as well. This concept is much further off from realization, however, and progress has been extremely slow except for systems using biological molecules like DNA.

No comments:

Post a Comment