political and economic philosophy theorycrafting

[eric]

[The Comrade]

well those still require raw materials so it doesn't really solve the problem it just slows it down. i mean you'd still have to buy one of those machines and the raw materials for it. you'd just have a huge commodity economy instead.

[eric]

[The Comrade]

yeah but you're still buying crates of phosphates and amino acids and all that other stuff. you just change the dynamic of capitalism from taking macro-raw materials and making goods into one where they collected base raw materials and sell them and you make your own goods. plus there's this whole issue with patents (let's assume they remain for the sake of argument) where you'd probably have to pay someone to print their shirt or their chicken recipe or whatever.

[eric]

Yeah but what I'm saying is that (in the case of food specifically) the overall economic cost for the planet would be much, much cheaper. We wouldn't have to produce and ship actual bulky food. We would simply have to manufacture or gather the base materials, and bam there is an apple, or a loaf of bread.

And yes, I agree with patents. I could see it happening just like music now

1. Pirated food and stuff
2. Food patents licensed to individuals, with "high end foods" costing a premium.

[The Comrade]

that's true, but i question how easy or clean the process would be of obtaining MASSIVE quantities of base materials to produce foods in the way of 3D printing. and you'd still have to sell and transport those.

i think we can make agriculture sustainable, honestly. i just don't think the scale in which we're doing it is sustainable.

[Boris Johnson]

I think 3d printing is being made far, far too much of.

Great, it can make bits of plastic that fit together. Is the technology, in principle capable of producing cheaply that's actually useful, lets say a dynamo as thats fairly simple? No. It can make stuff out of polymers, which also as it happens are created from materials we do not have an infinite supply of. Far from it.

Applying this 'concept to food' is basically saying 'replicators are around the corner. Problems solved!!!11'.

[The Dharma Bum]

[Boris Johnson]

[The Dharma Bum]

Well, while you are waiting print yourself up some schtuff.

I mean that's what it's all about isn't it?