Third dimension

I was reading an article in WIRED magazine about 3D printers recently (http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/05/an-insiders-view-of-the-hype-and-realities-of-3-d-printing/) and I couldn’t help myself extrapolating.

In the near future, it is easy to conceive of a 3D printer that can print at the atom scale. This means that, given the right 3D model of any shape, that printer can reproduce it down to the last atom. It will effectively print a clone, identical in every way to the original.

So let’s push this a little further.

Scientists everywhere are trying to understand how the brain works, and philosopher have always wondered if consciousness has a physical base in our cortex. So the one scientist who is building a 3D model of the human brain (http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/07/features/thought-experiment), if equipped with this theoretical printer, could actually perform an amazing feat: he could print a perfect clone of a human brain. This brain would be a completely working replica of the real thing. Therefore, it should be conscious.

Now this presents an amazingly complex philosophical problem: if we can create a brain from scratch in this way (and we’re still a way off), would it constitute a living being? Would it be aware of its own existence?

And if we can create a brain this way, why stop there? Why not ‘print’ an entire living being?

On a more practical level, this could still be ethically applied to the creation of new organs to replace failed ones. Everyone could volunteer to have their organs mapped in 3D down to the atom, then stored on a special section in iTunes where people could download them and have them printed for use in themselves, or others. You could print one as a gift. That opens up all sorts of Christmas opportunities.

Pets could be eternal, re-printed after death at will. Beyond biohacking, this would mean that we could replace any part of our body with an equally living part, making our lives endless. It would put immortality within our graps.

All because of a printer.

Now think about that. And tell me what you think.

Because I wont live forever.