# Will we ever get matter-replication technology? What social effects? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 4, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009 "2008-05-04T16:35:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/21 "2008-05-07T15:43:06Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Rather like some gemstones these days, where as I understand it the ones that can be manufactured can be distinguished by their perfection, resulting in flawed stones being more valuable. [/QUOTE] Yet another way DeBeers has managed to flim flam its customers. A few years ago perfect stones were more valuable because they were more beautiful. Now they are LESS valuable because DeBeers can’t control their release? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/22 "2008-05-07T15:59:21Z")
Yeah, DeBeers is definitely a piece of work. All the anti-business rants on this board are actually close to the mark when DeBeers is the target… -XT ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/23 "2008-05-07T17:05:34Z")
One thing nobody has touched on here: A matter replicator could be used to make unlimited quantities of any illegal drug. Would it be banned for that reason? And if it works at the atomic level, it could be used to make unlimited quantities of weapons-grade plutonium. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/24 "2008-05-07T17:34:22Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] I could definitely see nano replicators that take basic materials (which would be compiled and sorter by a nano scale deconstructor…**something that would be fairly dangerous and that you would definitely want to keep a good handle on if you want to avoid the gray goo problem)** and construct some rather exotic things with it. [/QUOTE] Could you elaborate or provide a cite on the danger and the “grey goo problem”? It sounds like interesting reading! ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/25 "2008-05-07T18:27:33Z")
[Grey Goo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo) is a longstanding Nanotech “end of the world” type scenario. The link should have everything you need to know about it, at least in theory. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/26 "2008-05-08T15:52:33Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] One thing nobody has touched on here: A matter replicator could be used to make unlimited quantities of any illegal drug. Would it be banned for that reason? And if it works at the atomic level, it could be used to make unlimited quantities of weapons-grade plutonium. [/QUOTE] Not if there are legal constraints placed upon the software, connected to a network that monitored the software for tampering, therefore cutting off the feeding tube to tampered devices. People can make bombs out of fertilizer and gasoline, and yet we still provide them to the populace. Besides elemental transmutation is still the holy grail of scientific exploration, as it has been from the dawn of alchemy. Transmuting elements into Plutonium would be a very difficult process and need not be within the capacity of consumer grade home factories. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/27 "2008-05-08T18:27:56Z")
The “Grey Goo” scenario is just as ridiculous as the “Magic Nanotech” scenario. Not that anyone will listen to me. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/28 "2008-05-08T22:27:08Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] One thing nobody has touched on here: A matter replicator could be used to make unlimited quantities of any illegal drug. Would it be banned for that reason? [/QUOTE] I doubt it _could_ be banned. Any device that can duplicate itself is essentially impossible to control without extremely strict and totalitarian control. See the difficulties many vested interests have in stopping copyright infringement or keeping national secrets. There’s a reason they keep trying to come up with some system where every computer everywhere is vetted and secured against its users; it’s the only feasible way to stop free communication of data. Unless the entirety of humanity is controlled by a regime so powerful that there is no meaningful resistance, trying to ban something this powerful just won’t work. If there are competing nation-states, then even a successful ban would be fairly disastrous for the nation-state that did so, since the others would out-produce and out-compete them fantastically. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@Earl\_Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Wilson)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/29 "2016-01-02T11:20:28Z")
Its possible if you think about what we know now about matter and that its all made of energy. whats to say the way the energy flows, or the shape of said energy dose not determine what the energy then makes in the form of matter. if that’s the case simply having the energy move in a different direction or simply changing its shape can very well turn one matter into another type of matter. AND they will ban matter replicators, such a device will make money irrelevant and that device could very well spell the days a post apocalyptic world. simply put if you have a device that can turn the dirt in your back yard in to anything you need why would you slave day after day working a job. you wont, so nobody is working, so no taxes = no government, no government = no police, no hospitals, no military. i think that very well paints the picture. now i know that sounds absurd but with society the way it is now that’s exactly what will happen. for us to survive in a world with such a device. we as humans have a long way to go. the ideals of Independence, Liability, Vanity, Property, and Value as well as many other things that make up the “now as we know it” human psyche have to go, but us humans are greedy, Petty, Prideful, Hateful beings and that’s not every happening. SO in conclusion matter replicators will be banned. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/30 "2016-01-02T11:54:15Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > One thing nobody has touched on here: A matter replicator could be used to make unlimited quantities of any illegal drug. Would it be banned for that reason? > > And if it works at the atomic level, it could be used to make unlimited quantities of weapons-grade plutonium. The sort of replicator tech that we might have by the end of this century won’t be able to create elements out of other elements (unless the replicator builds a sophisticated and fairly reactor first). It could make drugs, but it would need to create a sophisticated drugs laboratory first. It could probably make a TV or a laptop (or a gun), but these would almost certainly be made of a restricted range of materials. The clever part will be redesigning every-day products so that they can be built from these materials. You’ll still have to buy feedstock (or make it yourself, which won’t be easy). This will be a revolution in manufacturing and employment, but it won’t be direct replication from energy, which is a fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2016, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/31 "2016-01-02T16:14:33Z")
It’s already possible to 3D print guns. Electronic items are coming soon. > **[3D Printed Electronic Devices Are Coming](https://singularityhub.com/2015/01/15/3d-printed-electronic-devices-are-coming/)** > > The handheld computers we carry in our pockets represent almost unimaginable complexity. Batteries, sensors, chips, circuits, and touch displays in a space age shell, all painstakingly assembled by thousands of workers and shipped globally.... And the ability to use other materials is here or will be very soon. > **[Makerbot Is Letting You 3D Print With Metal, Limestone, and Wood](https://gizmodo.com/makerbot-is-letting-you-3d-print-with-metal-limestone-1677739760)** > > Makerbot—perhaps the most consumer-friendly of 3D printer manufacturers—is about to go a long way toward turning the tech into something consumers can actually use. Starting late this year, MakerBot is going to let you 3D print with a range of new... ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/32 "2016-01-05T03:56:00Z")
Zombie replicator technology is upon us already. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/33 "2016-01-05T21:26:25Z")
> [@Earl\_Wilson](#): > > Its possible if you think about what we know now about matter and that its all made of energy. whats to say the way the energy flows, or the shape of said energy dose not determine what the energy then makes in the form of matter. if that’s the case simply having the energy move in a different direction or simply changing its shape can very well turn one matter into another type of matter. AND > > they will ban matter replicators, such a device will make money irrelevant and that device could very well spell the days a post apocalyptic world. simply put if you have a device that can turn the dirt in your back yard in to anything you need why would you slave day after day working a job. you wont, so nobody is working, so no taxes = no government, no government = no police, no hospitals, no military. i think that very well paints the picture. > > now i know that sounds absurd but with society the way it is now that’s exactly what will happen. for us to survive in a world with such a device. we as humans have a long way to go. the ideals of Independence, Liability, Vanity, Property, and Value as well as many other things that make up the “now as we know it” human psyche have to go, but us humans are greedy, Petty, Prideful, Hateful beings and that’s not every happening. > > SO in conclusion matter replicators will be banned. Anything “banned” will be done in **some** country if it’s profitable. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009/34 "2016-01-05T21:46:32Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > There;s not such thing possible even with “nanotechnology.” Nanotech is anot a cure-all, and it’s a horrifically bad way to make most things. It is slow, inacurate, and would be a massively difficult engineering task to even begin toa ccomplish for no gain. > > Short version: Without handwaving away the issues of energy, time, and control, manufacture via nanotech is vastly inferior to virtually any other manufacturing method you could conceive of. Well, really, Der Trihs already pointed out one of the obvious problems, which is that nanoconstruction wastes energy by converting it to heat on a scale orders of magnitude above… uh… not-nano-construction. It’s just thermodynamics; if I put a stone wall up stone by stone, that will waste energy in the form of heat somehow. If I put it up pebble by pebble, it’ll waste more. If I put it up molecule by molecule, even more so. You save heat by already having your stones in stone-sized chunks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-ever-get-matter-replication-technology-what-social-effects/448009.md?page=1)