Every person in the world now owns a matter replicator, but due to the limitations of the technology, there is a 24-hour cool-down in between each use. How would people use this technology?
Every person in the world now owns a matter replicator, but due to the limitations of the technology, there is a 24-hour cool-down in between each use. How would people use this technology?
Its a space of 1meter×1meterx1meter, basically a cubic meter where the matter replicator works on. (So, no replicating cars, since its too big)
How do you min-max this?
You mean after gold and diamonds essentially become worthless? A lot of people would definitely use it for medications.
I’d never have to quit drugs! Woohoo
I’d say that society as we know it would collapse fairly quickly, with it being replaced by a communist or socialist system fairly quickly. Fields that require brains would be in significant demand, as food would become a non issue. Same thing would occur with other essentials, such as food and medicine. As mentioned in other comments, money would become worthless. And there would be people who would make new replicators who would have reverse engineered their replicators.
Day 1, I replicate a replicator kit and put it together. I also contact a realtor and let them know I'm interested in buying some land. Off grid, far from cities, doesn't matter.
Day 2, I replicate two replicator kits and put them together.
Day 3, I replicate four replicator kits. I've now got eight of them. I'm not sure I'll need sixteen, at least not right away, and my basement is starting to get a bit crowded. So I'll leave it at that for the moment, but the moment I think I need more replicator capacity I can have it.
I'd replicate some of these new graphics cards that are so hard to find.
Can I adjust dimensions? Like, can I replicated a car, but a tiny one that will fit in a 1x1x1m cube?
If so, I'd replicate 1/8th of the replicator, but double sized. Repeat for all other parts, assemble, and now I have a 2m³ replicator. Repeat until I have one big enough to replicate a house.
Then, the whole point of the exercise: replicate a house-sized Funyun.
The main thing is positioning in order to reduce wasted space as much as possible. As someone with a 3D printer, I have a teensy bit of an idea on how to position "ready-made" to maximize space. I certainly cannot print/replicate a fully mounted car frame in a single cubic meter, but I can print parts of the frame in such a way that I can mount them like legos, if each rod is 5x5x99cm, I can fit roughly 361 (19x19, with a bit of space between them so they don't come fused) in the cubic meter. Is that enough to make the whole frame? No idea.
Also, think about it, 1 cubic meter of sandwiches, tacos, pizza and other junk food tasting great AND being perfectly healthy. Damn, now I'm hungry.
The obvious answer: Use your replicator to replicate more replicators.
The correct answer: The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.
The clever dick corollary: 1m3 is actually quite a large volume, and ain't no rule says you can only replicate one object at a time. If whatever luxury item or commodity you want is small in volume, which it probably is, don't forget you can replicate a whole bunch of it within a meter cube.
I’d make my own studio ghibli paintings.
The moment you try to min max the economy will fall apart. Replicate new PC parts? Cool, but now intel/AMD/Nvidia will go bankrupt, no more development. So I guess you could min-max the economical revolution. Capitalism doesn't appear to make sense in a world with near endless access to anything.
Personally I'd get heaps of food and water
I hate that by now, I have found a way for capitalist to bill you anyways.
The vast majority of people would make as much money as they could. Quickly, the economy implodes. People soon realize they can exchange their matter replicator for eggs. A new billionaire class arises, using their millions of matter replicators to make basic necessities for the worker class. The modern assembly line is now just row upon row upon row of matter replicators. One man per warehouse, just moving from matter replicator to matter replicator.
A few smarter people used their matter replicators to make more matter replicators. Lobbyists quickly pass "safety regulations", and these "black market" replicators are outlawed. Soon local police start advertising "amnesty", where you can bring in your illegal matter replicator and exchange it, no questions asked, for a gun.
A few unlucky people used their matter replicators to make drugs. The purity of replicated drugs quickly renders these people unable to continue using their replicators. These replicators are collected by next-of-kin, stolen by the people that exchanged their own replicator for eggs, or accidentally destroyed.
My first thought was to start work on a de-replicator. Lot of people about to have a lot of junk in their house and it'll pile up quickly.
Not sure how long it'll take until the earth becomes a black hole.
I might also try and put a few new squares on the periodic table.
I'd probably replicate a 1x1x1m cube of tungsten, then realize I have no way of removing it from the replicator.
- Make a nuclear bomb. You don't need a whole ICBM, a single MIRV warhead can fit in the available space.
- Threaten to set it off if everyone in the area doesn't give me their fabricator.
- Expand operations/nuke delivery range.
- Have a monopoly on the means of production again.
This is how people brainwashed by capitalism would use it to deprive us all of the post-scarcity future. We can only hope some more reasonable people also think of making nukes first so we can at least have some mutually assured destruction to preserve the fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Clean up the streets, feed garbage into the replicator to be used as fuel/raw materials
I tell you right now, it's gonna be all Lego for me.
Beyond the easy answers of replicating the machine itself or covering basic needs, I think it would be interesting to make a super computer with a small form factor capable of mind uploading. Then you print a replacement body in a position that fits within a cubic meter and presumably you can extend your life for a bit. A simpler alternative would be to replicate medicines that have been shown to extend healthspans in the short term and just take them in the recommended dosage when you need to.
A few people could easily coordinate to have one person ceeate food, another clothing and essentials, and another could create charged batteries or other energy producing objects. Hell, with a little planning you wouldn't even need to coordinate really.
At that point the world is basically post scarcity and anyone can do anything, kinda like star trek.
Assuming no limitations on what it can make we will also be at the stage of mutually assured destruction since everyone can make a mini nuke each day they don't need something else. This will either discourage violence or wipe out large areas of the planet depending on how fast the technology is distributed, as everyone getting it overnightbwill absolutely lead to a lot of damage in areas where conflict is happening. Not to mention oppressive governments trying to control the populations replicators.
Everyone's talking about money, but I'd try to eliminate costs. First day I make some food and a couple of (full) power banks. Next few days I make some food and solar panels.
I know you say no cars, but I have family I'd trust to put one together. (I'd trust them to take mine apart to work on it.) The only odd part would be body panels? Similarly I'd try to figure out some small housing a cubic meter at a time, but that's probably also a work in progress.
I'd mix in a few personal items over the coming days of course. A new PC, new clothes, and food variety. I don't know how to get rid of Internet and land costs. I wonder if the resulting economic crash might lead to that being figured out for everyone, but I somehow doubt that.
a smaller replicator that just fits into the space and continue till the space could only do like a gumdrop.
I'd use it to make food
6 kilos of fine aged opium please
It's called a 3D printer.
I'm mean, obviously Kelly Brooke.
Any warzone is about to go absolutely nutty.
Tbh, big corporations will buy it off from desperate people for $2000 and use it to print machines that bulk-produce graphene and micro-fusion reactors and finally have the tech to seal off from Earth and leave ruins behind.
People thought replicators will solve everything but actually big corporations still win, and the economy continues. What’s valuable is the IP or blueprint or knowledge etc. Yes, you can print everything, but do you have a team of engineers who use this replicator to rapidly iterate and develop cutting-edge technologies such as teleporters or warp drives? Too bad you have to pay something for it.
