In Part 2 of our three-part series, we look at the deep possible: possibilities that are little more remote. Maybe two or three rooms over, instead of only one. Or maybe many more.
The Universal Assembler
A Real World ‘Star Trek’ Replicator Is Now Possible Thanks To New Breakthrough
The discovery of carbon nanotubes in 1991 led scientists to develop hundreds of “functionalizations” for nanotube openings. Most of these can be useful as molecular gates.
The key innovation at Mattershift has been to create an inexpensive and scalable platform for this library of gates. With the ability to deploy Programmable Molecular Gateways at scale, we believe practical molecular factories are now possible.
Post-scarcity — A deeper, downstream scenario from Universal Assembler. (Whereas we listed post-employment as adjacent!)
Interstellar Travel — Mars colonies and asteroid mining may be adjacent, but we probably still don’t have all the parts for this.
Digital Immortality — very deep
Also, many of the possibilities we think of as adjacent may prove to be Deep.
Example: In the 1940’s we invented nuclear fission weapons and shortly after developed commercial nuclear power from fission reactors.
In the 1950’s we invented nuclear fusion weapons with the expectation that commercial nuclear power from fusion reactors would soon follow.
We thought we were adjacent to fusion power, but it has proved to be a much deeper challenge than we anticipated.
Cure for Aging
Cure for Obesity
Fusion Power
Robot Lawyers
Robot doctors
Next time: The Hidden Possible
WT 416-729
Eternity Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) | Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
