Automatic dispensers have been around for a long time. They are the coffeemaker, cappuccino machine, and even the snack machines to an extent. These are not as advanced as those shown in the upcoming nano versions and were depicted as having a greater potential in television shows and cartoons. This aspect of nanotechnology has the capacity to alleviate world hunger.
In the future, I think our generation will be seen as barbaric due to our consumption of animals for food. This is not a pleasant thought for me. As I see the Romans as barbaric in their treatment of slaves and servants, I expect that I, too, will be perceived in this manner by future generations. This is a natural occurance with animals no longer being needed for food due to the replicator.
This example of a technology that represents a rhyme of history would be portrayed by the cartoon technology in the Jetsons of the 1960s and reoccurring in the 1980s. I am looking forward to the food replicator. According to Houghton (2010), the Jetsons predicted the TeleViewer (which would be the thin televisions of today), videochat (Skype), tanning bed, robot vacuum cleaner, the talking alarm clock, and automatic breakfast. Even though I don't agree that the automatic breakfast as described and rejected by Houghton (as he stated) quite meets up to the cartoon version, I do believe that the one depicted on the Jestons cartoon is in the near future.
Another futuristic show that depicts the food repication technology is Star Trek. It not only repicated food, but also "anything from a space age guitar to a cup of Earl Grey tea" (Responsible Nanotechnology, 2007 para. 1). The technology to make it a reality to the extent depicted is about twenty years away.
Nanotechnology scientists have replicated molecules. According to Wikipedia (Molecular assemblers, 2010), "molecular assemblers are possible in this limited sense." There are many examples on the internet of how advanced this technology is becoming. Kelly (2007) talked about everything becoming one world connected as "one media platform" to all people in the world. He also demostrates a rhyme in history that shows a replication of pixels to construct virtual worlds, which is an analogy of how the food replicator would reconstruct and read the molecules to replicate food.
Resource
Houghton, M. (2010). 6 current technologies the Jetsons predicted. Retrieved from http://www.techvert.com/6-current-technologies-the-jetsons-predicted/
Kelly, K. (2007, December). The next 5,000 days of the web [speech]. Speech delivered at the EG 2007 Conference, Los Angeles. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html
Pheonix, C. (2003). Design of a primitive nanofactory. Journal of Evolution and Technology. Retrieved from http://jetpress.org/volume13/Nanofactory.htm
Responsible Nanotechnology. (2007). A Star Trek replicator. [blogpost] Retrieved from http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2007/12/a-star-trek-rep.html
Tucker. J. A. (2002). It's a Jetson's world. Lew Rockwell [dot] com. Retrieved from http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/tucker14.html
Price, E. (n. d.). Jetson's technology. today [blogpost] Retieved from http://computers.families.com/blog/jetsons-technology-today
Wikipedia (2010, October). The Jetsons. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jetsons
Wikipedia (2010. October). Molecular assembler. Retieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_assembler
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Debra--Love your example! My favorite food replicator was the one in the British SF show "Red Dwarf" where the creature who had evolved from the ship's cat and who had a limited vocabulary figured out how to say "Fish" to the replicator, which would happily reply in a proper British accent "The fish of the day is planked trout--enjoy your dinner." The cat totally OD'd on planked trout, but the concept was a hoot anyway!
ReplyDeleteYou missed one intermediate attempt at food replication: tofurkey and its friends in the "not quite meat" section of the store. It isn't the neatly packaged delivery that the Jetsons had, but it does take some edible substance and makes it look and feel like something entirely different.
Nice job!
Deb,
ReplyDeleteI, too, am ready for replicator technology. But not so much with food. I want the replicator to do clothes--create them or let me design them, then take them back when I am done wearing them. No more buying clothes, no more washing or sending them to the cleaners, no more drying, folding or putting away! I am so ready.