How can anyone not get a little excited about the possibility of having a replicator in the kitchen, or travelling at warp speed, or having a holodeck in your house?
The more I find out about whats going on in science around the world, the more I start to see how these things will be possible, some of them, if I'm lucky within my lifetime.
I only have to think about some of the scientific breakthroughs using carbon nano tubes and the possibilities they offer to get very excited - but today as I was reading about advances in 3D Printing* (3DP), my thoughts diverted unavoidably to the possibilities of having a Star Trek style replicator at home, at least to replicate inorganic objects made of plastics, carbon fiber, titanium and so on.
Although 3d printing has been around for about 10 years, up to now using mainly thermoplastics to create one-off prototype objects for manufacturing purposes, whats exciting is the increase in the type of materials that 3d printers can use today and the variety of stuff that can been replicated[3DP]. heres a list of materials that 3DP printers (Replicators!) can use today:
Thermoplastics, metals, glass, Titanium alloys , clay and ceramic materials
Imagine going online to download the design spec for a new set of titanium saucepans or a part for your car and then replicating [3DP] them at home. EOS, a german company that makes 3D printers recently 'printed the parts for a violin using a high-performance industrial polymer, had it assembled by a professional violin-maker and played by a concert violinist.'
So, what about Warp Speed, is it possible? Well we might be able to design a plane that travels at 4000 mph within ten years or so, but unless we learn how to manipulate the fabric of space-time it doesn't really look like we'll going to impulse anytime soon captain.
What about a Holodeck? this might sound it bit far fetched, but the US military are actually having a go at making one [immersive training simulator] for army blokes to train with while some clever cloggs in Japan are actually getting somewhere with tactile touchable holography and claytronics or Physical Dynamic Rendering- wow!
So, maybe in 50 years or less we might all have access to something like a Holodeck - too late for me unfortunately - unless of course the brains that are working on cryopreservation or human hibernation can pull their finger out so I can hibernate for the next 30 years and wake up the same age in time to walk through a holographic forest in the rain (since there wont be any real ones left) and climb up walls in a spiderman suit.
*3D Printing - a bit like using a bubble jet printer that prints plastic and metal rather than ink.
- Source Article on 3DP - http://jaldenh.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/the-economist-3d-printing/
- touchable holography video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw&feature=player_embedded
- Claytronics video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaqzOUv2Ao
- Human Hibernation article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/feb/17/hibernating-bears-human-hibernation
Cryopreservation wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryopreservation
- 400mph passenger jet article: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641304022
- carbon nanotubes - spiderman suit in ten years articleL: http://nanosciencetech.blogspot.com/2010/08/spiderman-suit-based-on-nanotechnology.html
The more I find out about whats going on in science around the world, the more I start to see how these things will be possible, some of them, if I'm lucky within my lifetime.
I only have to think about some of the scientific breakthroughs using carbon nano tubes and the possibilities they offer to get very excited - but today as I was reading about advances in 3D Printing* (3DP), my thoughts diverted unavoidably to the possibilities of having a Star Trek style replicator at home, at least to replicate inorganic objects made of plastics, carbon fiber, titanium and so on.
Although 3d printing has been around for about 10 years, up to now using mainly thermoplastics to create one-off prototype objects for manufacturing purposes, whats exciting is the increase in the type of materials that 3d printers can use today and the variety of stuff that can been replicated[3DP]. heres a list of materials that 3DP printers (Replicators!) can use today:
Thermoplastics, metals, glass, Titanium alloys , clay and ceramic materials
Imagine going online to download the design spec for a new set of titanium saucepans or a part for your car and then replicating [3DP] them at home. EOS, a german company that makes 3D printers recently 'printed the parts for a violin using a high-performance industrial polymer, had it assembled by a professional violin-maker and played by a concert violinist.'
So, what about Warp Speed, is it possible? Well we might be able to design a plane that travels at 4000 mph within ten years or so, but unless we learn how to manipulate the fabric of space-time it doesn't really look like we'll going to impulse anytime soon captain.
What about a Holodeck? this might sound it bit far fetched, but the US military are actually having a go at making one [immersive training simulator] for army blokes to train with while some clever cloggs in Japan are actually getting somewhere with tactile touchable holography and claytronics or Physical Dynamic Rendering- wow!
So, maybe in 50 years or less we might all have access to something like a Holodeck - too late for me unfortunately - unless of course the brains that are working on cryopreservation or human hibernation can pull their finger out so I can hibernate for the next 30 years and wake up the same age in time to walk through a holographic forest in the rain (since there wont be any real ones left) and climb up walls in a spiderman suit.
*3D Printing - a bit like using a bubble jet printer that prints plastic and metal rather than ink.
- Source Article on 3DP - http://jaldenh.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/the-economist-3d-printing/
- touchable holography video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P1zZAcPuw&feature=player_embedded
- Claytronics video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaqzOUv2Ao
- Human Hibernation article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/feb/17/hibernating-bears-human-hibernation
Cryopreservation wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryopreservation
- 400mph passenger jet article: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20080641304022
- carbon nanotubes - spiderman suit in ten years articleL: http://nanosciencetech.blogspot.com/2010/08/spiderman-suit-based-on-nanotechnology.html
The world is definitely shaped, in part, by what we see in the TV and movies. I saw a presentation at a conference a few years ago by these two guys that tied together what people saw in the movie/tv industry with things that happen in real life. For example, the Motorola StarTac phone was, supposedly, influenced by the tricorders in Star Trek. There was also the map thing in XMen that they used to show a 3D topographic map of Liberty Island. A few years later, the US military is using this technology to provide topographic depth to satellite images in the field. Exciting times.
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