Organizaton Wants to Build a Nano-Replicator 3D Printer - Is it possible?

[Eddie]

One organization has just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to create a Nano Replicator 3D printer. For those unfamiliar with the term, this would basically be a 3D printer that can arrange atoms however it chooses in order to 3D print virtually anything. The campaign looks to open source the actions of building and designing this machine, although it would obviously start out as a giant research project aimed at figuring out a way to make this possible (if it even is). Read and see more on this at: http://3dprint.com/73693/nano-replicator-3d-printer/

[November]

Hrmm... well, breaking it down, I guess, the technical hurdles might be:
1 - storing appropriate quantities of elemental feedstock. This doesn't seem too awful but I might be missing difficulties here. Different elements may have different constraints, like pure potassium can't have any moisture, or it might catch fire / explode.
2 - preventing atoms from bonding / interacting inside the printer head before they get to the place they're being deposited
3 - generally, manipulating individual atoms (magnetic confinement? manipulating the actual atoms with 'virtual' matter, eg quantum dots?
4 - automating verifying atomic bonds are correctly established for each molecule when deposited. Big difference between H20 and H2S04.
5 - keeping whatever you're printing (imagine 3d-printing a water balloon) from falling apart while it is being printed - really keeping everything, preferably every atom, in the whole 3d structure, in the position you want it to be until it is done. Or accepting that there might be limits on what you can print and living with it / moving on...
6 - given that different environments can be corrosive, toxic or damaging - providing an appropriate environment for whatever you print as it is released from 'stasis'. Metals rust in saltwater with dissolved oxygen in it, but saltwater fish require it, for instance. Nonreactive atmospheres can suffocate your 3d printed rabbit. Or again, accept these limitations for now and move on.
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Bottom line: I think we can make better, awesomer printers.
I don't think we'll be able to print anything we want in 3d for a bit, but I would love to be proven wrong. I think whatever comes out of this, if it is legitimate, will have some limitations on it.

p.s. Obviously scanning a rabbit, in 3 dimensions, atom by atom, could also pose its own difficulties... looking at discussions about scanning / uploading a human brain, for instance.

[ReplicatorAssembler]

That is a good point. There are books and materials on making replicators. You can go different routes: Nanotechnology Molecular Positioners, Bioreplicators, plasma based energy versions, and more.

[awerby]

It seems that anything that was making things atom-by-atom would take a long time before it built anything one could actually see with the naked eye. Even if it's making fairly simple molecules, adding 2 hydrogen atoms to each oxygen atom, when would that cup of Earl Gray tea be ready?

[ReplicatorAssembler]

It seems that anything that was making things atom-by-atom would take a long time before it built anything one could actually see with the naked eye. Even if it's making fairly simple molecules, adding 2 hydrogen atoms to each oxygen atom, when would that cup of Earl Gray tea be ready?

The answer to this is parallel processing. In nature you don't have just one ribosome or one enzyme working at a time, you have armies of millions of them. The idea is to build assemblers or nano 3d print heads that are all operating at the same time. billions and trillions of them, under computer software control....and then they can build big in a reasonable time, minutes to hours or somewhere in between.

[curious aardvark]

can't see any real problems. They've been manipulating atoms for a while now.

Now if you can partner this with a quantum computer - the ultimate in parallel processing - could be pretty amazing.

[ReplicatorAssembler]

I agree. Great point. While this following statement is speculative, I want to share it: A person working on quantum computer development told me that even beyond nanotechnology, if true industrial quantum computing could be mastered, the quantum computers would not only be able to process information at the quantum level but would eventually be able to process matter with control over the SUB-atomic quantum realm. That is even more advanced than nanotechnology which involves rearranging atoms and molecules.

[Crossland]

If they're moving fast enough you won't need to confine them; spectrally shift the quantum dots and guide them around; maybe hit a super heated plasma like an expanding photograph.