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A Santa Claus machine, named after the folkloric Santa Claus, is a hypothetical machine that is capable of creating any required object or structure out of any given material. It is most often referenced by futurists and science fiction writers when discussing hypothetical projects of enormous scale, such as a Dyson sphere. These types of future constructions would be too large for many civilizations to build directly, so they would need a series of machines to intelligently build the machine with little or no direct control.
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.
Discussionedit
A mature Santa Claus machine requires significant advances in technology to be possible, including the ability to take any collection of matter and reconfigure it into any other type of matter.
Scientifically, it requires two parts: a disassembler and an assembler.
One form of disassembler would consist of an ionizing chamber, which heats the input matter to 43,000 °F (24,000 °C).[citation needed] Once all the molecular bonds are broken and the electrons ripped off, each atomic nucleus would be moved through a magnetic field, where its path would curve in proportion to its charge/mass ratio, as per mass spectrometry. The separated ions would be captured by a linear array of cold traps to provide reservoirs of each element.
The assembler would use these reservoirs as input to some kind of additive layer manufacturing device (also known as 3D printers and rapid prototype machines). Many of these printers are commercially available today—though currently few can print with more than one highly prepared material (much less an alphabet consisting of all the raw elements).
An autonomous Santa Claus machine would presumably require a high level of artificial intelligence[dubious – discuss], though for small projects, autonomous behavior is probably not necessary. However, the "matter compiler" (that figures out which atom goes where) must be programmed appropriately—not a trivial task. A gigantic project such as a Dyson sphere would undoubtedly require not only autonomy, but also self-replication.[citation needed] These capabilities would enable a single Santa Claus machine, given sufficient matter and energy, to construct a project of any size.
Seth Rosenthal, Santa Claus Machine, Wired magazine, May 1994
December 13, 2023
santa, claus, machine, editor, nominated, this, article, deletion, welcome, participate, deletion, discussion, which, will, decide, whether, retain, feel, free, improve, article, remove, this, notice, before, discussion, closed, more, information, guide, delet. An editor has nominated this article for deletion You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion which will decide whether or not to retain it Feel free to improve the article but do not remove this notice before the discussion is closed For more information see the guide to deletion Find sources Santa Claus machine news newspapers books scholar JSTOR 5B 5BWikipedia 3AArticles for deletion 2FSanta Claus machine 5D 5D AFDThis article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these template messages This article possibly contains original research Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations Statements consisting only of original research should be removed April 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Santa Claus machine news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2010 Learn how and when to remove this template message Learn how and when to remove this template message A Santa Claus machine named after the folkloric Santa Claus is a hypothetical machine that is capable of creating any required object or structure out of any given material It is most often referenced by futurists and science fiction writers when discussing hypothetical projects of enormous scale such as a Dyson sphere These types of future constructions would be too large for many civilizations to build directly so they would need a series of machines to intelligently build the machine with little or no direct control Contents 1 Origin 2 Discussion 3 See also 4 References 5 External linksOrigin editThe term was coined by Theodore Taylor in 1978 citation needed 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 Discussion editA mature Santa Claus machine requires significant advances in technology to be possible including the ability to take any collection of matter and reconfigure it into any other type of matter Scientifically it requires two parts a disassembler and an assembler One form of disassembler would consist of an ionizing chamber which heats the input matter to 43 000 F 24 000 C citation needed Once all the molecular bonds are broken and the electrons ripped off each atomic nucleus would be moved through a magnetic field where its path would curve in proportion to its charge mass ratio as per mass spectrometry The separated ions would be captured by a linear array of cold traps to provide reservoirs of each element The assembler would use these reservoirs as input to some kind of additive layer manufacturing device also known as 3D printers and rapid prototype machines Many of these printers are commercially available today though currently few can print with more than one highly prepared material much less an alphabet consisting of all the raw elements An autonomous Santa Claus machine would presumably require a high level of artificial intelligence dubious discuss though for small projects autonomous behavior is probably not necessary However the matter compiler that figures out which atom goes where must be programmed appropriately not a trivial task A gigantic project such as a Dyson sphere would undoubtedly require not only autonomy but also self replication citation needed These capabilities would enable a single Santa Claus machine given sufficient matter and energy to construct a project of any size See also edit3D printing Molecular assembler Replicator Star Trek Fusion torchReferences editExternal links editthe Replicating Rapid Prototyper Project RepRap org Don Lancaster s Santa Claus machine library Seth Rosenthal Santa Claus Machine Wired magazine May 1994 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Santa Claus machine amp oldid 1189524854, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
