subject: Here Comes The Replicator [print this page] Here Comes The Replicator Here Comes The Replicator
Predictions of when future developments will occur are dicey. But real possibilities are worth exploring. Science fiction is often taken lightly as entertainment. But did you know that science fiction writers are in general very serious about their craft and that much of what you see in a science fiction movie is at the very least possible in the future?
Microbiologists are making rapid and steady progress on the human brain. While the soul may well remain an eternal mystery, the brain obviously is not and it is only a question of time before it is completely mapped. And I propose this: the day that someone sits with a doctor and through a non evasive procedure is made to feel that she is actually tasting and smelling a lemon- and not only that but to different degrees of sourness from uncomfortable to just a hint- that will be a day that will utterly change the human world. That will be the birth of the replicator.
We assume that sensory experience is stored in memory. Going deeper, we can posit that memories are tangible things, be it code or what have you. And if we are dealing with things (remember that memories are somehow stored), then it is merely a matter of mechanistic manipulation to retrieve them. From there, a memory can be amplified to such a degree as to seem completely real. In fact, this happens to us from time to time in our normal life. So much so that victims of PTSD can really be fooled into thinking they are back on the battlefield.
Furthermore, the world of dreams holds fantastic potential in helping to invent a replicator.
There is the replicator that can actually construct new material things such as food and the replicator that can make you truly believe you are having a physical experience. The latter, with the biotechnology we have today, seems likely to be in our future. And it will be far beyond anything we now know as a cyber-experience.
