June 27, 2000

7:00 PM

If you`re like me, then you believe that as time goes on and technology gets better, information content providers will have fewer and fewer means of preventing their content from being freely distributed - until all information is free, essentially. We`re already seeing this - MP3, motion pictures and whatnot. But let`s stretch our imagination a little and try to conceive the convergance of this trend with Nanotechnology... [more]
posted by SilentSalamander (5 comments total)

It seems that, in the near future, only tangible goods (cars, buildings, hamburgers etc.) will be saleable in the conventional sense. Because you can`t make exact replicas of cars, buildings, and hamburgers at fractions of a penny. Burger King isn`t worried about the piracy of a Whopper, for example. But with millions of self-replicating robots that can create virtually anything provided a blueprint, Whopper and Camaro piracy becomes feasible. Raw materials are the only expense. Thus, the divide between information and physical objects is further and significantly blurred.

Recently, a few content and context companies have been experimenting with more feasible business plans for content-distribution - for example, embedded advertisement - without charging anything for the actual good. In the nanotechnical future, should we expect to download free plans for a German Shephard puppy that has a Coke advertisement, genetically or otherwise, permanently embedded on the side of its body for life?
posted by SilentSalamander at 7:02 PM on June 27, 2000

"Nanotechnology is currently in a very infantile stage." - nanotech.about.com

BWHAAA-hahahahahahahaaaa!!! - HAHAHAHAa ahahahahahahaha! - AAAAAAhahahahah!!!!

[Zach falls out of his chair and goes into an uncontrollable fit of laughter until he hyperventilates himself unconscious.]

posted by ZachsMind at 8:06 PM on June 27, 2000

...am I the only one who finds this funny? Nanotech is very small right now but it's getting bigger! Honest!

Oh you're no fun anymore! =P
posted by ZachsMind at 6:56 AM on June 28, 2000

Whaddya mean, anymore?

But really, aside from the fact that this'll mean we'll all get to live forever (if we can last another 20 years and be rich enough when they figure out how to replicate humans to buy downloadable clones of ourselves) in a world where anyone with a replicator has literally a license to print money, y'know, aside from that, what is really going to change?

I see so much capacity for good out of this, but on the other hand... if you thought biological terrorism was hard to defend against...

posted by chicobangs at 10:40 AM on June 28, 2000

Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can...
posted by ZachsMind at 2:24 PM on July 3, 2000