The history of science fiction shows that they got at least something right. Being a fan of the genre myself, I often find my imagination challenged by some predictions authors make, even though they seem seem centuries ahead of our time they still sound feasible. And hectically ever changing world around us implies that nothing really is impossible.
Lets take the famous Star Trek as an example, debuting in 1966 it introduced quite a few new technological concepts over the years of existence of the series, some of which already really exist nowadays. One that really interests me is the Replicator - a machine capable of creating and recycling objects.
This clever device worked by rearranging subatomic particles, which as we know are abundant everywhere in the universe, to form molecules and then arrange those molecules to form the object in question. In example, to create a strip of bacon, the replicator would first gather atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and others, then arrange them into amino acid and protein molecules, then form cells and assemble them into the final form of bacon.
This clever device worked by rearranging subatomic particles, which as we know are abundant everywhere in the universe, to form molecules and then arrange those molecules to form the object in question. In example, to create a strip of bacon, the replicator would first gather atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and others, then arrange them into amino acid and protein molecules, then form cells and assemble them into the final form of bacon.
This approach sounds very much like a molecular assembler - a term introduced by an American engineer K. Eric Drexler, that describes a proposed device able to guide chemical reactions by positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision. And to no surprise the term has actually been used in science fiction and popular culture to refer to a wide range of fantastic atom-manipulating machines, many of which may be physically impossible in reality.
There is one heavyweight and controversial industry that deals with very complex organic molecules and tries to create and produce them in a most efficient way possible - pharmaceutics. And great news for it! It seems that Sci-Fi ideas of the Replicator can actually turn out to be the present reality. The idea of "printing your own drugs" was the centerpiece of a recent TED Talk by Lee Cronin, a chemist from the University of Glasgow. Lee claims to have prototyped a 3D printer capable of assembling chemical compounds on the molecular level.
What Apple did for music, I'd like to do for the discovery and distribution of prescription drugs.
The process would not be that different from the way today's 3D printers work, except on a much smaller and more precise scale. According to Cronin, users would go to an online drugstore with their digital prescription, buy the "blueprint" and the chemical "ink" they need, and then print the drug at home with software and a 3D molecular printer. One of the biggest advantages to this approach will be the ability to tailor the chemicals and dosages to suit the individual precisely, making it even possible to remove or lower the risks of allergies and other side effects.
Yet to every positive technological advance there tend to always be also the dark side. In the review of Mike Power, 3D Printed Drugs: The Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High by disrupt3d.com reviewer states:
Yet to every positive technological advance there tend to always be also the dark side. In the review of Mike Power, 3D Printed Drugs: The Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High by disrupt3d.com reviewer states:
It doesn’t take much extrapolation from current tech trends to see where this will eventually end up. Once we all get atomic-level 3D printers, we can just build our own pills at home. Then “controlled substance” will finally be completely uncontrollable.And this is really not that hard to imagine, having in mind how many different kinds of new synthetic drugs are being born every day that it is quite hard for the authorities to keep up and ban them, simplifying this process even further wouldn't do much good to an already black market. If drug printing machines become readily available, it wouldn't take being Walter White to produce your own top quality psychoactive drug of choice.
References
- 10 Things Science Fiction Got Right - Neatorama
- HowStuffWorks - Top 10 'Star Trek' Technologies That Actually Came True
- Replicator (Star Trek) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Molecular assembler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Lee Cronin: Print your own medicine | Talk Video | TED
- Integrated 3D-printed reactionware for chemical synthesis and analysis : Nature Chemistry : Nature Publishing Group
- 3D Printed Drugs: The Revolution That's Changing How the World Gets High | Disrupt 3D
- Horrifying New Drugs! Does New Zealand's New Synthetic Drug Law Offer a Safer Way Forward? | Eric E. Sterling
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