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Ellie: I had a slice of ham in my hand. I was going to drop it, so I slapped it hard. It attached itself to the wall
Oh, my god. Do you REALIZE what this means? Okay, sure, for now you're looking at skin, teeth, tissues and organs being 'printed' (built, really) and that's great news. Burn victim? Take a swab, load the tissue cylinders, and crank out new skin. Broken arm? Make a new bone, and replace the splintered section with a healthy bit grown from your own DNA. The new section would knit to your own bones in a fraction of the time it would take to heal a splintered bone. Bad heart? New one. Diabetic? We'll make you a healthy pancreas in about a day. So that's all nice. But. With the application of just a few more technologies, none of which are terribly far beyond the horizon... GARTHIM. I have always wanted an army of Garthim to do my bidding. Always. This technology isn't limited to making copies of existing organs and tissues. With a little work, it could be used to make custom-designed organisms from scratch. Improve the output of the 'printer' so it can produce multiple tissue types simultaneously, and in complex layouts. The completed organism would probably go into a bath of nutritive solution and maintenance nanobots, who would tighten and solidify connective tissue and whatnot, also allowing for diagnostics to be run on what is at that point a floating corpse. Hook up the jumper cables, send Igor to the roof with a lightning rod, and bam! It's alive! You wouldn't need or want to create a whole new cohesive DNA, just use compatible tissue types. And why bother to give a reproductive system to organisms that you'd charge for by the unit? Assuming some advances in nano and biotech, the new creature's nervous system can be preprogrammed, up to and including memories and skills that would be built in. Seriously. Yes, yes, this could be used to copy people. Not the point! Garthim! Okay, first off would probably be custom pets for the super rich and eccentric crowd. I'm thinking, iridescent beetles the size and temperament of housecats. Maybe tropical fish, made bigger, given multiple legs, made air-breathing and programmed to use the litter box. Maybe tiny people with pretty butterfly wings that speak in musical whistles and love to dance. Dude. I'm not kidding. Faerie pets are not just possible with this technique, they're probable. From there, military types and corporate psychos will vanguard the advance into a whole new tier of bioweapons. Great big dumb brutes that simply kill on command. Stealthy creatures with horrific poison and stealth capabilities to guard or infiltrate, seeking a preselected and designated prey. Or, my inner mad genius screams in glee, gigantic crustacean/reptiles with rudimentary intelligence, immunity to pain, and no drive other than to obey my commands! GARTHIM! BRING ME A PIZZA!
Why do people want to stay alive longer? We live long enough. Accept death already.
You look like my grandmother.edit: when she was young. You don't look like you're 80.
Last night I had a dream that Zerlina and I were pirates. It was... beautiful.
What are you saying? You want us to stop natural selection? You want those malfunctioning babies to grow up, and have more malfunctioning kids?
