It sounded like something out of an Arthur Clarke book – this 3D printing thing.
I remember seeing it late (out of touch, as I usually am) sometime this year and had a genuine “Whaaa??!” moment. The kind where you half wonder if you even heard it right because you’ve only gotten down a gulp of your morning Sumatra and it’s entirely probable that your brain’s going David Blaine on you.
But it’s no lie.
Much like that movie Wolverine and Batman did (which would have been far better had they actually played their superhero selves instead of magic men), there’s a thing that can clone shiz.
And functionally, it wears many hats. (see what I did there?)
So, the first purpose , obviously, is to print more money. (Actually, that wasn’t anywhere in the documentary I just saw. But it shoulda been.)
The real magic, really, happens in the lab. 3D printers are already erecting ears where once nothing but oxygen molecules bobbed about, armed with a cocktail of biodegradable gel and human cells ready to make it happen. In just six hours or so, the machine can create a kidney by operating in layers. It’s like a regular printer – except it uses cells to create tissue – instead of ink to make eye food.
In this way, patients using their own cells to replace the burnt out natural appliances they were born with, don’t have to worry about the whole organ-rejection thing you get from a good Samaritan with a bad fitting kidney.
Then, while some want to save lives, others want to erase them.
This one dude aims (pardon the pun) to bring gun-building means to everyone – starting with the firearms they used in ‘nam (which makes it sound more sexily heroic than “the guns that one dude decimated a bunch of innocent people with when he went mad”)
The idea would be to make downloads avail to all for what they call a “wikiweapon”. Blueprints for a boomstick – right at your triggerfingertips.
But my day’s been dark enough already. So let’s talk about something other than life and death – which are inevitable phenomena. What’s really important here… is food.
Yep, they’re building edibles, too. I’m just thinking how great it’d be to never have to make myself become not naked again – just to answer the effing door for delivery.
I mean the whole point of ordering a meal is not having to get dressed and see people. Which begs the question – can clonebot make kale and other fresh shit? Or just umami soothing foods infused with manufactured crap?
Oh, and what about drugs?
Could you imagine it at a late night L.A. afterparty? With all that availability, it’d certainly weed out the weak pretty quickly (I’d make a sativa turn of phrase joke there, but I’m told reefer’s repercussions have yet to include “OD”).
Unless, of course, it developed self awareness (don’t they always?) and morphed into Buzzkill bot at 3 AM, harshing everyone’s buzz and halting their binge like a narcotic barkeep with a conscience.
“Stop, Dave. I’m afraid you’ve reached your limit.”
(Junkies become geniuses when fiending)
It’s not a new technology, though. Since the 80’s, it’s been used to generate industrial parts and pieces for everything from car parts to Ironman’s suit.
That said, we’re about a decade out from making repro model body bits, painkillers, and people killers alike into another mundane chore you fit between dishes and washing off the nocturnal emissions from your teenager’s bedsheets.
Which is fine, because ten years will be just around the time I’ll need some magic of my own.
“Who did your boobs?! They look so real!”
“A good Victoria never reveals her Secret…”