Blog Reflection 3: Teleportation via Telepathy?

 Blog Reflection 3 – Teleportation via Telepathy

Over twenty years ago I was invited to a work meeting where I and others were asked by the meeting facilitator to contribute to a technological innovation discussion. Attendees were asked what we thought the next big technological innovation would be. I, perhaps too young and too inexperienced to know any better, told them what I truly thought: teleportation.  Looking back my idea seems quite outlandish and even juvenile for the time. The calendar had not quite hit the year 2000 when I offered my suggestion in the meeting, however the Internet was revved up and already changing the world. I tried to support my idea by pointing out that with the free flow and instant availability of information we were seeing, the next big technological innovation I could imagine on the horizon was of a similar sort, but instead of with information, the free flow and instant availability would be with physical objects. I could not back then imagine precisely how this could happen, but today over two decades later, a way to what I imagined is coming into view. For the remainder of this reflection, I will suggest how two innovative technologies from today might coalesce to impact life in the future.

Amazon, Beware the 3D Printer

The first technology I submit for consideration is 3D printing. The name of the technology itself is a bit of a misnomer in my view. Printing as we have known it to this point in history has always been in three dimensions. The ink that adheres to paper, fabric, or any other receiving substance after the printing process completes leaves a raised layer or more of itself, if ever so slight and imperceptible to our senses. And so, a third dimension is there, whether we recognize it or not. I am being a bit pedantic here, but the point I am taking us to is that 3D printing as it’s known today takes this fact about the ink layer and builds on it – literally. Stacks of ink, or rather, constructive and adhesive substances like plastics, resins, carbon fiber, and others, that can be projected, poured, or otherwise placed on a target surface are used to construct physical objects that have precise width, depth, and height specifications, one layer at a time. Today the technology is already being used to print all manner of things, from complex machine parts, to miniature industrial design prototypes, to houses (The B1M, 2020). The printers (really robots) are given instructions on what to print (really build) with plotted out specifications, and they go to work. As this technology advances, it is hard for me to imagine nearly any object that couldn’t be printed. For the sake of argument, imagine that any inorganic object could be printed. This would eliminate the need for a specific object to be physically delivered. Less than 100 years ago the only way to transmit a message was to physically deliver it from sender to recipient. Today through digital technology, and the right equipment in the hands of sender and receiver, transmission needs no physical delivery. In the same way, 3D printing could allow for this with physical objects. Instead of going online to a digital marketplace like Amazon or even Walmart, placing an order, and waiting for the object to be pulled from a shelf, boxed, and physically delivered, a 3D printer could ‘deliver’ the order as soon as the digital transaction completes. As mentioned before, there are several advances that need to be made in the technology and there are also significant hurdles to clear. The speed at which a 3D printer produces an object would have to outpace Amazon Prime’s same day delivery capacity, or at least their average delivery wait time in order to take hold. There would also need to be 3D printers in every home. The printer would need to be easy to use, maintain, reload, repair. While these are certainly hurdles to clear, they are by no means insurmountable. With the advent of AI and nanotechnology it’s easy to imagine 3D printers that might require little to no technical knowledge from their users. Another problem to solve would be supplying the ‘ink’ for the printers to each household, but since delivery of physical objects via services like Amazon and others already has a healthy infrastructure, it seems like these are more logistical and supply chain questions to work out, rather than deep riddles to solve.

Do You Read Me?

The second technology I offer that could change life as we know it is neurotechnology. In short, neurotechnology is a way for machines to receive, and in some cases send, signals from and to the brain. Entrepreneurial pioneer Elon Musk is aggressively pursuing advancements in the field with his company Neuralink (CNET, 2020). This technology could change life first and foremost for those who have lost use of their limbs, or other senses such as eyesight and hearing. Neurotechnology could allow machines to send visual signals received via camera to parts of the brain that handle optical processing, and could perform similar functions to deliver audio signals. The technology also could allow for a user to send signals via thought from a neural implant connected to their brain to a computer. Musk in his Neuralink product demo in 2020 alluded to someone being able to summon their Tesla with a thought. All of this sounds a little far-fetched, I admit, but a path to it is being mapped out by dreamers like Musk.

Your Wish is My Command

3D Printing and neurotechnology could change the way life works. Imagine again the scenario mentioned before, of going to Amazon’s website or app, finding a product to buy, purchasing it and waiting for delivery. We’ve already considered how 3D printing might change this common process. If we were to add neurotechnology into the mix, we might not be too far from the reality where we could summon a product we wished to own just by thinking about it, give mental consent to purchase it for an agreed upon price, and have it in our hands a few moments later.

References

CNET. (2020, Aug 28). Watch Elon Musk’s ENTIRE live Neuralink demonstration. [Video file]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOWFXqT5MZ4

The B1M. (2020, Dec 16). Why this 3D-Printed House will change the world [Video file]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/XHSYEH133HA