Ask Lemmy

I make another Elon.

And then another on the next day, and then another etc. When I have got a dozen of them, I let them loose on the real one and on each other and watch whatever happens.

Next I make another Trump...

My first thought was to start work on a de-replicator. Lot of people about to have a lot of junk in their house and it'll pile up quickly.

Not sure how long it'll take until the earth becomes a black hole.

I might also try and put a few new squares on the periodic table.

Well... a turnip, obviously.

I'm mean, obviously Kelly Brooke.

Day 1, I replicate a replicator kit and put it together. I also contact a realtor and let them know I'm interested in buying some land. Off grid, far from cities, doesn't matter.

Day 2, I replicate two replicator kits and put them together.

Day 3, I replicate four replicator kits. I've now got eight of them. I'm not sure I'll need sixteen, at least not right away, and my basement is starting to get a bit crowded. So I'll leave it at that for the moment, but the moment I think I need more replicator capacity I can have it.

We know it can replicate multiple objects at once, because tea earl grey hot and the cup it comes in are multiple objects, and Picard often gets it on a saucer as well. So I would create a pile of everything I need for that day.

I tell you right now, it's gonna be all Lego for me.

1. Make a nuclear bomb. You don't need a whole ICBM, a single MIRV warhead can fit in the available space.
2. Threaten to set it off if everyone in the area doesn't give me their fabricator.
3. Expand operations/nuke delivery range.
4. Have a monopoly on the means of production again.

This is how people brainwashed by capitalism would use it to deprive us all of the post-scarcity future. We can only hope some more reasonable people also think of making nukes first so we can at least have some mutually assured destruction to preserve the fully automated luxury gay space communism.

Tbh, big corporations will buy it off from desperate people for $2000 and use it to print machines that bulk-produce graphene and micro-fusion reactors and finally have the tech to seal off from Earth and leave ruins behind.

People thought replicators will solve everything but actually big corporations still win, and the economy continues. What’s valuable is the IP or blueprint or knowledge etc. Yes, you can print everything, but do you have a team of engineers who use this replicator to rapidly iterate and develop cutting-edge technologies such as teleporters or warp drives? Too bad you have to pay something for it.

Everyone's talking about money, but I'd try to eliminate costs. First day I make some food and a couple of (full) power banks. Next few days I make some food and solar panels.

I know you say no cars, but I have family I'd trust to put one together. (I'd trust them to take mine apart to work on it.) The only odd part would be body panels? Similarly I'd try to figure out some small housing a cubic meter at a time, but that's probably also a work in progress.

I'd mix in a few personal items over the coming days of course. A new PC, new clothes, and food variety. I don't know how to get rid of Internet and land costs. I wonder if the resulting economic crash might lead to that being figured out for everyone, but I somehow doubt that.

Buy land on earth.

As fast as possible.

I'd probably replicate a 1x1x1m cube of tungsten, then realize I have no way of removing it from the replicator.

The vast majority of people would make as much money as they could. Quickly, the economy implodes. People soon realize they can exchange their matter replicator for eggs. A new billionaire class arises, using their millions of matter replicators to make basic necessities for the worker class. The modern assembly line is now just row upon row upon row of matter replicators. One man per warehouse, just moving from matter replicator to matter replicator.

A few smarter people used their matter replicators to make more matter replicators. Lobbyists quickly pass "safety regulations", and these "black market" replicators are outlawed. Soon local police start advertising "amnesty", where you can bring in your illegal matter replicator and exchange it, no questions asked, for a gun.

A few unlucky people used their matter replicators to make drugs. The purity of replicated drugs quickly renders these people unable to continue using their replicators. These replicators are collected by next-of-kin, stolen by the people that exchanged their own replicator for eggs, or accidentally destroyed.

A few people could easily coordinate to have one person ceeate food, another clothing and essentials, and another could create charged batteries or other energy producing objects. Hell, with a little planning you wouldn't even need to coordinate really.

At that point the world is basically post scarcity and anyone can do anything, kinda like star trek.

Assuming no limitations on what it can make we will also be at the stage of mutually assured destruction since everyone can make a mini nuke each day they don't need something else. This will either discourage violence or wipe out large areas of the planet depending on how fast the technology is distributed, as everyone getting it overnightbwill absolutely lead to a lot of damage in areas where conflict is happening. Not to mention oppressive governments trying to control the populations replicators.

Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

One big sandwich 🥪

Wait. No. TWO big sandwiches 🤩

Even if you didn't want to use it for money, you'd have to use it for money somehow just to keep up with the inflation.

The obvious answer: Use your replicator to replicate more replicators.

The correct answer: The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer.

The clever dick corollary: 1m^3^ is actually quite a large volume, and ain't no rule says you can only replicate one object at a time. If whatever luxury item or commodity you want is small in volume, which it probably is, don't forget you can replicate a whole bunch of it within a meter cube.

Well, that gives you infinite energy, since you can produce energy-containing stuff.

Hmm.

On one hand, a lot of competition for resources go away.

On the other hand, that's also pretty disruptive.

I think that that world is going to have a lot of sudden challenges. You don't have scarcity of any material or existing item that you can break down to less than a 1m cube unless you need it in great bulk, but you also have no ability to control production of things like firearms, explosives, drugs, physical proofs of identity, missiles, weaponized drones, etc.

I can imagine countries or organizations trying to seize the supply of replicators.

Can... Can I replicate myself?

“Ugh. I’m tired. Work sucked. Computer, make dinner.”

My real answer in anything because you could split a car up over multiple days just like the 3D printed Lamborghini.