Replicator?

Imagine a future where energy is limitless and free. A world where because of the advances in science we control fusion to get our energy. No one fights about energy resources anymore because we have key power plants placed in places that power the entire globe evenly and thoroughly.

Now that we have the setting, in this world goods would no longer be manufactured or produced. They would be designed and tested. Then they would be replicated. Each building would have a replicator and each building would have a store of matter. No one would actually purchase products any more, they would pay for the rights to replicate products. They would be paying for the architecture of the products. Once the architecture is purchased by the consumer they have the rights to replicate it as many times as that purchase contract allows. if science advances far enough ways of taking raw energy and transforming it straight into forms of matter would prove more efficient. However that does not seem likely to happen for a while.

Imagine a hospital equipped with this kind of technology. Instant vaccines, medicines, and supplies. Would save millions of lives. Imagine a replicator placed in a small town in Africa, now able to replicate food and water. It would change how we live. No longer would the population be dependent on the earth for it's survival. No longer would people be forced to die because their region experienced a drought, disease or disaster.

Where would we get all the material for this from? Well if we are powering the world by fusion then there is the answer. We use the leftover matter from the fusion reactions to be used in the replication processes.

Is this technology even close to being possible? We have the technology For 3 dimensional printers right now. People use them to test a multitude of things in the real world. All we would need to do is modify this process to account for density and different types of materials. When it comes to fusion, even though they always say it is 50 years away, eventually we will possess the technology to control a reaction and obtain the energy from those reactions.

The world would be saved from overproduction, and the carbon foot print for moving products around the world reduced to almost nothing. The resources spent in packaging products would also be reduced to almost nothing and the garbage produced from those packaging would be reduced to almost nothing. Overnight the worlds waste would decrease substantially and we would finally be able to feed the billions that go hungry everyday.

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Recycling Facilities?

When it comes to recycling I have never understood why it is always put into the hands of the consumer alone. For instance it is up to everybody to have to recycle on their own at their own will. This has not proven to work. The waste management system itself should have some kind of recycling built in.

The way it should work:
the consumer puts their garbage out for the company to pick it up. After it gets picked up by the management company it is taken to the facility where it is sorted preferably by robot controlled systems into the various recyclable materials. Thereby leaving only biodegradable waste behind to rot in the giant compost pile that is the dump. The facility could also turn a profit on this venture simply by selling the recycled material to companies who can use it. Not only does this solve the issue of non-disposable waste being left to decompose at the dump It also makes it so companies in the area are using cheaper recycled materials instead of having to buy newly created or mined materials that only go further in exhausting non-renewable materials.

Consumer side of things:
the only thing the consumer would be aware of would be that they put out the trash. Some would say that this would lead to less care on what people throw away. That may be true however that should be the issue anyway. We should be able to throw anything away that we want and have it all sorted out at the facility we pay to manage our waste. Also when it comes to consumers recycling things on their own, their are a lot of financial reasons the consumer would choose to recycle what they can on their own.

Overall I think that if this kind of plan was implemented I would guess that not only would our world start to become a lot cleaner, but companies that should be "managing" our waste would not just be burying it in a hole somewhere but actually doing the management that they currently propose they do.


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