About This Blog
Automating Invention is Robert Plotkin's blog on the impact of computer-automated inventing on the law (primarily patent law). The blog also explores the implications of computer-automated inventing for creativity, ethics, and high-tech industry.
News Feeds
RSS
Receive E-mail Updates through Bot-A-Blog
Categories
Links
Blogs
- 271 Patent Blog
- BLOG@IP::JUR
- Boalt IP Blawg
- Epistasis Blog
- Evolutionary Computation
- Genetic Argonaut
- IlliGAL Blog
- Invent Blog
- The Long Tail
- IP Newsflash
- The Open Road
- Patent Pending
- Peer to Patent
- The Singularity Institute
- Promote the Progress Blawg
Technology & Policy
- Berkman Center for Internet and Society
- Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- MIT STS Program
- Samuelson Law, Technology, and Public Policy Clinic
- Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
- U.S. Public Policy Committee of the Association for Computing Machinery
Resources (Law)
- Bitlaw
- European Patent Office
- Software Patent Institute
- Software Patents vs. Parliamentary Democracy
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- World Intellectual Property Organization
Resources (Technology)
- Genetic-Programming.org (John Koza)
- Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
- Genetic Algorithms Archive
- Genetic Algorithms and Artificial Life Resources
- Genetic Programming FAQ
- Genetic Programming Bibliography
- Generative Programming
- HDL Page
- NASA Evolvable Systems Group
- Evolvable Hardware (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
- Evolvable Hardware (University of Oslo)
Commercial Applications
- Affinnova, Inc.
- Icosystem Corporation
- Imagination Engines, Inc.
- Matrix Advanced Solutions Ltd.
- Natural Selection, Inc.
- NuTech Solutions
- Quantum Leap Innovations
- Red Cedar Technology
- TenFold Corporation
People
- Sion Balass
- Peter J. Bentley
- Hans-Georg Beyer
- Eric Bonabeau
- Ralph Clifford
- David Davis
- David Fogel
- James Foster
- David Goldberg
- Erik Goodman
- J. Storrs Hall
- Andrew Hodges’ Alan Turing Site
- John Holland
- Gregory Hornby
- Lorenz Huelsbergen
- John Koza
- Ray Kurzweil
- Hod Lipson
- Jason Lohn
- Julian Miller
- James Moor
- Daniel H. Pink
- Jordan Pollack
- Joe Rothermich
- Karl Sims
- Daniel H. Pink
- Lee Spector
- Stephen Thaler
- Adrian Thompson
- Marcel Thuerk
- Christof Teuscher
- Andy Tyrell
- Tina Yu
Philosophy
Search
Recent Entries
- Patents vs. Prizes
- Your Genome for $399
- Outsourcing Manufacturing Isn't Just for Large Companies Anymore
- My Book on Invention Automation to be Published by Stanford in Spring 2009
- Gamers Solve Problems in Science and Computing
- Software Improvises Musical Accompaniments
- Computer Simulation Uncovers Evidence of Biological Evolution
- Has Microsoft Really Patented Page Up and Page Down?
- Breaking the Software Development Speed Limit with Agile Programming
- Complexity: Computers Come to the Rescue
- Calculator Dates Back Two Millenia
- Does Google Make Us Dumber or Smarter?
Archives
« Biological Viruses Spread by Computer Viruses? | Main | Patent Law and Layers of Abstraction »
June 27, 2005
First File Sharing, Then People Sharing
BBC News reports that "[c]omputer scientists in the US are developing a system which would allow people to "teleport" a solid 3D recreation of themselves over the internet."
"Teleport" is in quotes because the technology, even if it existed, wouldn't really allow you to teleport yourself, but instead would create the illusion of doing so. To "teleport" yourself to your friend's house, you would need a camera connected to the Internet, and your friend would need a special machine with a stash of special synthetic atoms. The camera would take a picture of you and transmit the picture to your friend's machine, which would assemble the synthetic atoms into your shape. Capturing and transmitting images over time would produce a moving replica of you at your friend's house.
It seems that the same technology could be used to perform remote manufacturing. The manufacturer of a machine could transmit a 3D design for a machine anywhere in the world, and have the machine manufactured on location, thereby saving the cost of transportation. Unlike in the case of you and your friend, there wouldn't even need to be a physical "original" from which to make copies, just a CAD file generated using software. And any number of copies could be made, assuming a sufficient supply of raw materials.
This would bring the basic feature that has been causing so many problems for the "copyright industry" -- namely worldwide, instant, perfect, and (essentially) costless copying of audio and video -- to the manufacture of physical machines. Although automated manufacturing based on CAD-generated designs is old news in certain fields, it is unclear what its implications would be if it were to become ubiquitous.
Posted by Robert at June 27, 2005 10:42 PM
category:
Design & Engineering
| Intellectual Property Law
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)