Take a moment to look around you, to look out a window perhaps. Everything you see is made of the same material. From the computer monitor to the glass in your window, to cat in the garden and the tree it’s climbing, everything is made of matter that was created 13.8 billion years ago in a single moment in time. The big bang was the only moment in our universe’s history where matter was created and since science tells us that it is impossible to destroy matter then everything you see around you, including yourself, is made of matter that has existed for 13.8 billion years.
This ancient matter most typically takes form as atoms and it is atoms that are the building blocks of everything we see. But it is their age that gives us an insight into their adaptability, for if the atoms that make up your hand are 13.8 billion years old then they have spent the overwhelming majority of their existence being a part something other than your hand.
It’s an over simplification but it’s helpful to think of the universe as a giant Lego set. One thousand Lego pieces were created at the big bang and billions of years later we still have those exact same pieces. Throughout their existence they will sometimes make up part of a bridge, a house, or the tail of a dog perhaps. They will be a part of many different objects through the years but they will always be the same Lego block. The same is true of the atom.
PERHAPS ONE DAY THE MATERIAL THAT MAKES UP YOUR HEART WILL BURN BRIGHTLY IN THE CENTRE OF A DISTANT STAR
As you look around, you are staring at an unimaginable number of atoms, each one with a unique story to tell. Perhaps an atom inside your finger nail used to be part of the rock face at Niagara Falls or maybe it made up a small fraction of Abraham Lincoln’s hat. The simple fact is that matter is life’s true survivor, it has been here since the very beginning and it will be here till the end. For a very small fraction of an atom’s life they will come together to form you, but as your time ends they will go on to become anything imaginable. Perhaps one day the material that makes up your heart will burn brightly in the centre of a distant star.
It is this understanding of the very base of matter that allows us to dream of the ultimate invention. An invention of pure creation that would change the world in a way few other technologies could. It would be a creator on the atomic level, with the ability to move atoms into a precise arrangement to create any object imaginable.
For instance, the only difference between a hippo and a fridge are the precise arrangements of the atoms. Like the Lego analogy from before, if we want to change a fridge into a hippo then all we need to do is rearrange the blocks until we have a hippo instead. This imagined future invention would therefore be able to do just that with atoms.
Point it at an object and it will be able to dismantle the atomic structure until all you have left is a fine dust of singular atoms, the device could then use these as building blocks to form whatever object the user desires. Of course this means that such a device would need to have complete knowledge of the exact location of every single atom of the desired object, something that is far beyond the capacity of current technology due to the sheer number of atoms that make up even the tiniest of objects, but as ever, technology will relentlessly march on until one day it is possible.
IT IS A FUTURE OF OBJECTS POPPING INTO EXISTENCE OUT OF THIN AIR WHERE ANY IMAGINED OBJECT IS POSSIBLE, A FUTURE OF PURE CREATION
In this future, physical things will be sold as atomic maps to download to your device which will then arrange atoms into the form according to the map. It is a future of objects popping into existence out of thin air where any imagined object is possible, a future of pure creation.
However, it is also a future of great risk. As the integrity of all things, including life, is open to dismantlement at the flick of a switch. Imagine such a device being used for destruction to tear apart the atomic structure of public buildings reducing them to dust or to do the same on living people. In many ways it will be the most destructive invention ever made, capable of far greater damage than today’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.
If used by a mad man or in war, the aggressor could turn all forms he sees into dust, an enemy base, army, town, could all be robbed of their atomic structures and turned into dust in the wind. It’s a terrifying prospect to imagine, but it is also an equally exciting prospect for creation. Truly it will be one of the greatest and feared inventions of all time.
FTR Talk 