Santa Claus machine
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An editor has determined that sufficient sources exist to establish the subject's notability. (December 2023) |
A Santa Claus machine is a hypothetical machine that is capable of creating any required object or structure out of any given material.[1]
Origin
[edit | edit source]The term was coined by Theodore Taylor in 1978:[1]
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.[2][3]
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]- the Replicating Rapid-Prototyper Project : RepRap.org
- Don Lancaster's Santa Claus machine library
- Seth Rosenthal, Santa Claus Machine, Wired magazine, May 1994