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**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 52771 06-14-2012 02:46 AM

http://www.slideshare.net/sheep000/santa-claus-machine

**AtomIcarus**

What is this about? Does it have anything to do with resource-based economies, like the Venus Project? It seems kind of long to watch the whole thing without knowing what it is first.

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 52771 06-14-2012 03:58 AM

AtomIcarus Wrote:

What is this about? Does it have anything to do with resource-based economies, like the Venus Project? It seems kind of long to watch the whole thing without knowing what it is first.

"It’s possible to imagine a machine that could scoop up material – rocks from the Moon or rocks from asteroids – process them inside and produce just about any product: washing machines or teacups or automobiles or starships. Once such a machine exists it could gather sunlight and materials that it’s sitting on, and produce on call whatever product anybody wants to name, as long as somebody knows how to make it and those instructions can be given to the machine. I think the name Santa Claus Machine for such a device is appropriate."

~~SoSayWeAll~~ · **~~SoSayWeAll~~** Banned User ID: 16731 06-14-2012 04:06 AM **Posts: 7,267**

Replicator...

**LoP Guest** lop guest User ID: 98291 06-14-2012 04:07 AM

SoSayWeAll Wrote:

Replicator...

**DinoDNA** · (This post was last modified: 06-14-2012 04:19 AM by DinoDNA.)

Another interesting hypothetical machine:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere

The Dyson Sphere

Quote:A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the long-term survival and escalating energy needs of a technological civilization, and proposed that searching for evidence of the existence of such structures might lead to the detection of advanced intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Since then, other variant designs involving building an artificial structure or series of structures to encompass a star have been proposed in exploratory engineering or described in science fiction under the name "Dyson sphere". These later proposals have not been limited to solar-power stations. Many involve habitation or industrial elements. Most fictional depictions describe a solid shell of matter enclosing a star, which is considered the least plausible variant of the idea.

**DinoDNA**

Also:

Dyson tree

Quote:Dyson has also proposed the creation of a Dyson tree, a genetically-engineered plant capable of growing on a comet. He suggested that comets could be engineered to contain hollow spaces filled with a breathable atmosphere, thus providing self-sustaining habitats for humanity in the outer solar system.
Plants could grow greenhouses…just as turtles grow shells and polar bears grow fur and polyps build coral reefs in tropical seas. These plants could keep warm by the light from a distant Sun and conserve the oxygen that they produce by photosynthesis. The greenhouse would consist of a thick skin providing thermal insulation, with small transparent windows to admit sunlight. Outside the skin would be an array of simple lenses, focusing sunlight through the windows into the interior… Groups of greenhouses could grow together to form extended habitats for other species of plants and animals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson#Dyson_tree