OK, so we’ve all heard of the Grey Goo, and how Nano Technology and Artificial Intelligence will overpopulate and overrun the earth and then the galaxy. That’s all fine and good.

Well, before all that craziness happens, I predict there would be a lot of good, and quite a bit of cool stuff that would come out of it.

I thought about it and I think I came up with some good ideas. Of course, there will always be the spammers and criminals that take advantage of something meant for good, but I’ll address that later.

Personal Replicator
I believe one of the first gadgets to come out of this Nano Technology era will be a personal replicator. This will be a sort of a fax machine that would be connected to your computer. You’d go shopping online and instead of paying shipping, you’d just pay for it, confirm the correct address, click replicate and then wait.

These machines would house Millions of NanoBots that would get their building plans from the CPU in the replicator, then get to work.

There would be different sizes of replicators, or at least the landing pads would unfold or something, because if you can replicate a little Japanese sound activated, bobbing toy with the batteries included, why couldn’t you replicate a sofa, or a car, or a house.

You’d need the space for the finished car.

Downloadable Menus
As well as being able to purchase items to be replicated, there would be hackers, or inventors, or even producers that would offer plans for you to download. You could either modify, or just feed into the replicator and have what you downloaded.

Someone might invent a really cool shoe or carbonated beverage that you can’t buy in stores. Or someone might have hacked into the plans for a motorcycle and modified it to include hover capabilities and sound barriers. You know, the options would be endless.

Carbon Blocks
There would have to be a receptor for the carbon building blocks. Sort of like the Flux Capacitor Doc installed on the Delorian, this receptor could take anything. Rocks, tree limbs, tires, garbage, human waste, anything.

The NanoBots would take in the Building blocks, disassemble them into useful material, and reassemble them into the object selected.

See, it’s not all bad
Open source would be king. Free plans would be everywhere. Recycling and raw materials could be reengineered from anything. You could make a few gallons of gas just by throwing away last night’s chicken bones and junk mail.

Credit System
There would have to be a credit system in place where what you put in can be taken out. Like say for example, I have a crescent wrench that I don’t use anymore, maybe it’s rusted or something. I throw it in there one day to use for my everyday replication, then one day I realize that I need that size crescent wrench. I should be able to go in and, as long as there’s enough material in the replicator, go in and get that wrench back. Maybe a non-rusted version.

Repairs
That takes us to repairs. Repairing an object should be easy. Maybe all objects produced could have a chip embedded that includes the plans to replace or repair.

The Danger
OK, inevitably, there would also be some dangers. The receptor would have to be pointing away from people or objects that you wouldn’t want to get sucked in and used for carbon. You wouldn’t want to accidentally have your Champion Jack Russell Terrier jump to fetch a Frisbee and be turned into a roll of wallpaper or a children’s story book.

Of course, there would need to be a “staging” area where the received would need to confirm the object being sent. You don’t want to come home to a cow in your living room.

Also, there would have to be some sort of waiver or something. You know there would be glitches in the system where maybe someone made a modification to a can opener that turned it into a weapon of some sort. Can’t have a bunch of lawsuits.

Next Generation
Maybe the next logical step would be to replicate humans. Not like duplicate, but like doors. You walk in through one replicator and come out the other end just the same, but at a different address.

Conclusion
So, while we wait for the Grey Goo to come and flood the earth and the rest of the galaxy, we can have some fun in the meantime.

Maybe it’s just a fun story and we’ll never end up being able to design a replicator or even a NanoBot, but it’s fun to think about.

Jorge Goyco

written by jorgegoyco - jorge goyco - Website