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"...if you want to know what your future looks like, don't waste your time on Analog; read Time magazine. We are already saturated in the future. "
- Peter Watts
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| Nanofax | ||
| Send a copy of a three-dimensional object to a distant place. |
If you think that this sounds unlikely, you should understand that something like this already exists, and was in use for at least a few years before being described in the novel. It's called stereolithography, and it is used to create a three-dimensional plastic model from a three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) drawing. All you need is your CAD model and
Sound expensive? Read on.
| "Nanofax?" "Everything the name implies," says Klaus, "and considerably less." "What's that supposed to mean?" "Nanofax AG offers a technology that digitally reproduces objects, physically, at a distance. Within certain rather large limitations, of course. A child's doll, placed in a Lucky Dragon Nanofax unit in London, will be reproduced in the Lucky Dragon Nanofax unit in New York-" |
| Technovelgy from All Tomorrow's Parties,
by William Gibson. Published by Putnam in 1999 Additional resources -
|
Stereolithography (or a nanofax machine) is not likely to show up at your local convenience store anytime soon. The machines cost about $250,000 and the polymer is about $800 per gallon. Keep in mind, of course, that computers no more powerful than a $5 calculator once cost millions of dollars, and random access memory (RAM) that I once paid $600 for now costs one-half of one cent.
The commentary for dustmice discusses a very small robot that is partly fabricated using stereolithography.
Compare to the idea behind the cosmic express from The Cosmic Express (1930) by Jack Williamson and the plastic constructor from Things Pass By (1945) by Murray Leinster. Also, the Biltong life-forms from Pay for the Printer (1956) by Philip K. Dick are able to "3D print" an object organically. Don't forget the product prescription from The Magellanic Cloud (1955) by Stanislaw Lem.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from All Tomorrow's Parties
More Ideas
and Technology by William Gibson
Tech news articles related to All Tomorrow's Parties
Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson
Nanofax-related
news articles:
- Desktop Manufacturing - 3D 'Printouts'
- Mcor Matrix 3D Paper Printer
- Zprinter 350 Full-Color 3D Printer
- MGX 3D Printed Goods Almost Has it
- Artisanal 3D Printing By Martha Stewart
| 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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'If you're one of those rarities who haven't attended a rocket-polo "carnage", let me tell you it's a colorful affair.'
'They filed clumsily into the battleroom, like children in a swimming pool for the first time, clinging to the handholds along the side.'
'a walking balloon proceeded with long strides of its aluminum legs...'
'There was nowhere on the planet where science and technology could not provide one with a comfortable home...'
'Most men updated their PIP on New Year's Day...'
'...a misshapen, many-tentacled thing about twice the size of a man.'
