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ovirt001 t1_j1zcsc4 wrote

Reply to comment by jwhildeb in what could be the next big resource or science that will change our lives? similarly to how Electricity, a wheel or fire did it. by minde0815

3D printers are primitive replicators. Scientists have managed to make ones that print on the nanoscale so we really aren't terribly far off from true replicators.
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME/News/2021/no-more-jagged-edges-nanoscale-3d-printing-that-is-fast-smooth-and-repeatable

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jwhildeb t1_j1zlczc wrote

Kinda, but aside from scale the fundamental difference is that 3D printers can only make things out of the substance they're fed. Replicators eliminate basically every type of scarcity, globally and locally. THAT'S the fire-like paradigm shift.

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