Near Future: Nanofabricators that could make anything

Changing the world with a nanofabricator that could make anything including an exact duplicate of itself.

the year 2040 sees the beginning of worldwide distribution of kits to make a “nano-fabricator” able to take “dirt, air and water and a bit of cheap, carbon-rich acetylene gas”, manipulate atoms and molecules, and “produce anything you want, virtually free”. Since each of these can make a copy of itself, everyone has one by 2042.

Damn. That's twenty years from now. If I live that long I'll be ninety years old. Not entirely impossible. My father in law lived to be a hundred and five. Still, it's a bit much to hope for.

Burke continues, pointing out that nano-fabricators will thus eliminate the need for infrastructure and for government, and that the resulting abundance will eliminate the need for crime,

Will abundance eliminate psychopaths. Without government what will they do? Is mental health nature or nuture?

nanofabricators “will destroy the current social, economic, and political system, because it will become pointless,”

How a Machine That Can Make Anything Would Change Everything

Nanofabricators: The Creation Machine That Will Turn The World Upside Down Forever In 25 Years

What happens to the world trade markets when every home has a nanofabricator capable of turning electricity and plentiful raw materials into finished products? Food is just a combination of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, same as any medical drugs. You don’t need to buy clothes when you can manufacture them yourselves. And if we fully adopt renewable sources of energy around the world as we’re attempting to right now, if every home has solar panels and batteries enough to be self-sufficient, what then do you buy and sell on a daily basis?

Damn. I'll be 95 then. You youngsters don't know how good you have it or how good you WILL have it. The 'good old days' are today, and tomorow.

Ray Kurzweil predicted 2025 as the most likely year for the debut of advanced nanotechnology, and that one of the earliest applications will be advanced medical nanorobots.

There's HOPE. With medical nanorobots it follows that general health will improve and geriatric health will improve drasticly. Life extention will be a thing.

Now where did I leave my cane?