I have been considering the consequence of having a means to manipulate and reconfigure matter at the atomic and nuclear level. It is equivalent to the same methods a person might use to do recombinant DNA, except it is matter itself. I can fabricate a sequence of DNA, insert it into a cell and have a new life form. This is very rudimentary technology at the moment, but will eventually include all aspects of an organism.
It is feasible to create methods which take matter in the form of Hydrogen and construct more complex atoms and also gain energy. It is a simple matter of having the knowledge of how to manipulate the structure and the tools which implement the methods. I would say it is as pivotal, if not more pivotal than the understanding of the DNA that controls life on this planet.
It is a major change in technology itself. If any matter can be transmuted to any other matter and in the process produce the scale of energy that exists in a fusion reactor, it would seem that it would allow construction of any atomic configuration anywhere. I had not considered this before and it is reasonable to assume that an advanced race would already have this technology. It means that the value of rare or different atomic structures is NULL. It makes no difference if it is Gold or Lead. I would say this is the "Philosopher's Stone" in terms of permutation of matter.
I can't help but think of the replicators on Star Trek and I had thought that was silly and could never be done. Now I can see that it could be as common as having air conditioning or a refrigerator. If matter can be arranged into any other matter without the addition of energy, in fact the excess of energy, it is a completely different economic framework. If energy is not needed to produce a product then it seems that the limit of what could be had for free is only determined by the template or CAD that defines what you want. It is the lathe of the universe.
Precious and rare materials are only so because they are manufactured by stars, when they are manufactured as easily as cloth, then it isn't and issue of which nuclear configuration is present, but simply that there are Protons and electrons in sufficient quantity to weave the structure desired. It is very odd and I am trying to guess consequences, but it is just another of those odd things that I may never fully appreciate. What can be made with DNA? Any creature that exists in the world and more. What can be made when it is possible to control atoms in that same way? Anything in the entire universe and more. It is the "more" that I wonder about. Many things occur naturally, but what of exotic matter? It would seem that some of the odd things like the General Products Hull from Ringworld could be a reality. As if the world isn't odd and complex enough. I can't even imagine what could become of this. This is well worth making a prototype that is self constructing. Obviously a replicator can replicate a replicator as easily as anything else in the same way that DNA can create itself.
It will take me some time to appreciate what this implies, even in general terms. It does seem that it could be a form of sub-atomic DNA that could serve as a basis for a life form. It replicates from matter and really only requires a pattern to determine what comes of it. Very odd stuff and not science fiction at all. Life that could exist between the stars in the cold darkness of the solar seas. Life requires an energy source, a means to duplicate and materials. If it is not limited to Carbon or any other specific atom, it would seem to be very survivable and capable of existing anywhere.
When I first manufactured an organism in the lab I thought it was very strange. It seemed almost like magic in the same way that computers can be so magical in what is possible. I can communicate with anyone in the world at the speed of light and make my computer calculate things that required lifetimes in the past. This new technology steps again into what seems magic. Certainly it is technology as much as the fact that I can click a button on my phone and be connected with a friend in England, Italy, Russia, China, France or Germany in less than a second. If I can do the same with this technology, I could press a button and create life from air. It is all doable and as much as I understand electronics from the level of the individual gate to the chip and finally to the firmware and the application software it is known and I could fire up a CAD program, combine gates and interconnects, compile the code and submit it to be fabricated and have a complete computer system. It is done all the time. I can define a DNA sequence, have it constructed and insert it into an organism and have a new type of life design. And now I see that I can fire my CAD and with the appropriate tools create the foundational matter itself. The only real thing of value in the entire process is the knowledge and strangely, that is the only thing that does not exist physically. A complete metaphysical process. In addition the knowledge costs me nothing to replicate. Strange sights on the way to infinity and I would guess that this is not even the beginning of how different things could be. Accelerating change is the issue and what that implies is a factorial expansion and that really is unknowable.
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