[LINK] home factory

Adam Todd link at todd.inoz.com
Mon Dec 4 21:46:45 AEDT 2006


Gene Rodenberry must be smiling from around the Earth!

Replicators are a Star Trek technology.

The plastic replicator was created some years ago.  You feed in plastic and 
it puts out fairly basic plastic objects.

It may well be the same device in the article Kim has posted.  I'm not 
sure.  It was on TV a while back.  I'm guessing it's the same group.

I guess in some ways we are moving closer to the Utopian society where 
money doesn't give you the power.  Maybe not in my life time though :(

Once you have replication and self sustaining power, you don't need money 
or monopolies.  I'd say we have a way to go.

My only question is this.  With Fossil fuels on their last legs now, and as 
plastic is made from those processes, what will we be using when there is 
no more oil?




At 04:58 PM 4/12/2006, Kim Holburn wrote:
>Another one of things I wasn't sure I'd ever see in my lifetime.
>Maybe I will.
>
>http://blogs.smh.com.au/science/archives/2006/12/post.html
>
>>The make-everything machine
>>
>>You're at home in the not too distant future when you decide you'd
>>like some new garden chairs or a new pair of shoes.
>>
>>Instead of heading down to the shops, you jump on-line, select a
>>design you like and hit the return key.
>>
>>In the corner your ``universal constructor'' unit whirrs into life
>>and using a blend of plastics, ceramics and metals quickly fashions
>>to order the object you've chosen.
>>
>>It sounds like pure science fiction, but British academics are
>>leading a campaign for such devices to be installed into homes.
>>
>>The University of Bath's RepRap project is fine-tuning a rapid
>>prototyper - a kind of 3D model maker - with a view to making it
>>affordable and capable of reproducing itself.




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