Monday, April 8, 2013

The Not-So-Fictional Universal Assembly Machine

I used to read a lot of science fiction when I was in my early teens. One of the concepts I ran across is what is often referred to a Universal Assembly Machine, i.e., a machine that can produce any other machine. They don't exist and have never existed. They have been a dream of men for a long time.

Until now, with the advent of 3-D printers. I have never heard of them until a few months ago, when these printers were used to create firearms.

I think this is a great idea. I don't trust the government at all. It has now become the enemy of real Americans, trying to take away every freedom we have. Not only that, but also trying to impose on us onerous regulations about what we eat and drink.

What these printers can create is endless. Print your own car, or at least most of it? Make you make things out of cheap, strong hemp, the way Henry Ford made cars out of hemp?

One modern novel that discussed the social ramifications of a General Assembly Machine is Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. What he essentially pointed out is that a society would have to be very disciplined so that people would not sink to the bottom and became degraded welfare recipients.

I predict these printers are the wave of the future, because you can have one in your garage. And if they destroy corporations - evil creations of the State - the more I am for them.

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