microscopic tractor beam invented

[The Dharma Bum]

Probably pure hydrogen as a source for base particles would be the best "ink" for a fully moleculerized additive manufacturing process. You are talking about something on the level of actually materializing objects right before your eyes. Assembling objects from any element on the periodic table or any combination thereof on the molecular level using base particles would be fully possible if you can move these particles remotely using light.

Whoa...

[John Galt]

well that's fine but it's not creating them or changing them from one substance to another.

if you could change sand into a nice cup of tea, then yes, you'd be looking at a post scarcity society probably. i dunno about moneyless. services will still be provided etc... interesting topic anyway

but i don't think that this really moves into "replicator" tech. this is just tractor beam tech

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

You simply scan the object you would like to make, and then the replicator reproduces it. There are a lot of technical hurdles to clear but I could see this technology even replicating biological organisms given sophisticated enough scanning technology to provide sufficient resolution.

You could scan astronauts into the unit, send them on voyages lasted thousands of years and then reproduce the astronauts on the other end of the journey thousands of years later complete with a full array of livestock etc

Whoaa....

[J.K. Gregg]

You'll need insurmountable amount of energy to pull this off.

[The Dharma Bum]

[J.K. Gregg]

[The Dharma Bum]

I don't see why it would require an inordinate amount of energy. Surely it would take a good bit, but probably no more, or not much more, to any comparable manufacturing process.

[The Dharma Bum]

[The Dharma Bum]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_decay