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"I went back to science fiction to try a few experiments …and my first experiment was a disaster…"
- Alfred Bester
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| Matter Compiler | ||
| A device that builds the desired article (such as a dress) atom by atom according to a specified design. |
The ideal of being able to construct materials molecule by molecule is now being tested with very small nanomachines. However, it is only a matter of time before larger articles are made available.
One example that has a history in science fiction is the idea that customized clothing, like dresses, blouses and ribbons, could be created in an absolutely customized manner.
| Whenever Nell's clothes got too small for her, Harv would pitch them into the deke bin and then have the M.C. make new ones. Sometimes, if Tequila was going to take Nell someplace where they would see other moms with other daughters, she'd use the M.C. to make Nell a special dress with lace and ribbons. |
| Technovelgy from The Diamond Age,
by Neal Stephenson. Published by Bantam Books in 1995 Additional resources -
|
Tired of shopping for clothes, and trying to find something that fits you? You might want to take a look at the entry for customized clothing from Methuselah's Children by Robert Heinlein some fifty years earlier.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Diamond Age
More Ideas
and Technology by Neal Stephenson
Tech news articles related to The Diamond Age
Tech news articles related to works by Neal Stephenson
Matter Compiler-related
news articles:
- Filabot Turns Dull Plastic Junk To 3D Printed Shiny
| DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures' |
| Robot Bricklayer Or Passer-By Bricklayer? |
| Organic Non-Planar 3D Printing |
| Laser-Beam Welding In Orbital Factories |
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Science Fiction
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'He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors...'
'The robant and the tiny old woman entered the control room slowly...'
'Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs... What are the odds?'
'It is as you thought when you constructed the time crystal, my master Vaylan.'
'This was their world, their planet — this swift-traveling, yet seemingly moveless vessel.'
