WEBVTT - Food Replicators 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:14.720 Forward Thinking. Be there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.400 podcast that looks at the future and says I lost 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:22.320 my poor meatball when somebody sneezed. I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.680 I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Our host Jonathan Strickland is out on 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.800 vacation this week, so Joe and I are going it alone. 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.160 He is out getting the top of his head sun burned. Yes, 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.519 that is usually what happens. Actually, well, I don't know. 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:38.280 He might wear a helmet on the beach. I'm not 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:42.000 sure a helmet. Jonathan is not really a hat person. 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:43.879 He's more of a helmet person. I've seen him wear 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.080 baseball caps, although I think that the helmet thing would 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:49.360 go better with his entire mad scientist persona. So right, 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:51.720 But you know what I bet Jonathan is doing while 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.400 he's out on vacation. What I bet he's eating some 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:56.880 delicious food. Oh, I bet he is. I'm kind of 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:59.840 jealous of his delicious food. Yeah, that's that's one of 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.960 the things you do on vacation, right, eat delicious food 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:04.520 and you take pictures of it and you send it 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:06.160 back to the people at home in order to make 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.840 them jealous specifically. But do you know a really cool 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.800 place you can go where you almost definitely don't get 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:16.759 to eat delicious food? Um? Space? That's exactly right. I 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:20.720 was just reading a little review of some space food 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:22.840 that came out I think it was in two thousand 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:26.360 seven or so and Discover magazine about what the astronauts 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:28.240 eat up there at the I S S. So they 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.160 had a food critic eating it, and it didn't sound 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.920 too appealing. Apparently a favorite among the astronauts is the 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:40.400 shrimp cocktail, which sounds disgusting to me. But is it 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.800 dehydrated rehydrated shrimp? I would assume, yeah, I'd have to 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.039 assume that's what it is. That doesn't sound like a 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:50.200 party to me personally. It comes in packages, you know, 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:53.000 and you've got to add hot water, I guess, and 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:58.120 with a syringe. It's not really Uh yeah. The whole 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.840 process of eating in spaces is designed so that you 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:06.480 get a minimum number of crumbs out into the open 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.600 air because um are closed air, as the case may be, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.520 because those can can bounce around and reck all kinds 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:14.600 of systems and you know, so so it has to 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:20.359 be very specifically engineered for this entire um a um 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.000 conservation of resources so that you're not creating unnecessary waste 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.160 and be right making sure that you're not making a mess. Well, 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.720 as we learned from the Simpsons episode Deep Space Home, 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:32.840 or if you just crack open a bag of potato 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:37.440 chips in the capsule, they could clog the instruments. The 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.520 science of the Simpsons is pretty rock solid, right. So 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.680 so a lot of the foods there you get are 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.240 they're designed to be easy to eat from a little 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:49.040 uh pouch or something like that, and there their shelf 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:54.080 stable for transport up into space. And so that's understandable. Uh, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.880 but wouldn't it be great if you could get any 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.920 food you wanted in space? I mean, I'd take that 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.360 option here, honestly. Well yeah, but you know who does 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.080 get any food they want in space? The people on 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.760 Star Trek they do, along with those Nancy jumpsuits. How 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:11.280 do they get it? Do they just have a really 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.959 good chef on the enterprise replicators? Replicators? Of course, we've 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:19.440 all seen the whole tea Earl Gray hot kind of thing. Um. 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:23.280 For those of us who haven't, Captain Jean Luke Picard 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:28.280 has a fondness for Earl Gray tea hot. So he 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:30.680 goes up to the wall and there's a little nook 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:32.440 in the wall and he speaks to it. He says, 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:38.960 teh hot, and it comes right out. Yeah. It molecularly 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:44.320 assembles this or possibly sub molecularly assembles this, this cup 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.960 and the tea and makes it warm and serves it 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.320 up to you. Because that is what computers of the 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.920 future can do. It's a dream come true, really, and 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.560 that's why today we're talking about food replicators. That's our 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.400 that's our topic for forward thinking to you today. Is 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.440 this possible to make a food replicator? And if so, 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.840 how would it work? So how do they work on 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:11.360 Star Trek? Well, so it's it's a machine that creates 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.440 material objects and it's not in Star Trek actually limited 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:18.360 to food, is it right? You can make any I mean, 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:20.479 like I said, it also creates the cup when you 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:23.760 order a cup of tea. So uh. But they also 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:26.000 use it for for building all kinds of things and 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.560 like getting new clothes I imagine stuff like that. Yeah, 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.480 you can basically you can produce parts with it, I 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:33.880 think too. If you want to repair the enterprise, you 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:35.400 can make something that you need to go in a 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:39.159 certain place. Basically, the only things that can't make are 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:43.320 things that would make the plot too easy if you 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.640 were able to just manufacture one. So I think it 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.040 can't make new like drive fuel, can't make dilithium crystals 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:52.880 or right, because that would be that would be ridiculous. 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.279 And in a lot of episodes seems to be used 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.280 as like it's comic relief, the sort of jokes where 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:02.240 people of the jokes like there are too many options 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.880 at Starbucks. I just want coffee. They do that in 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.039 Star Trek, right, you know, I just want playing hot 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:12.520 tomato soup, not any of these seventeen varieties. Or it's 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:17.159 the joke where the human language to computer language compatibility, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:19.520 where the I mean, even though this is an extraordinarily 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.200 advanced computer system, for some reason, if you say hot 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.160 earl gray tea, it doesn't necessarily get it um. And 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.120 also they use it to I think illustrate some principles 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:30.839 about like economics or the prime directive, like is it 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:35.800 ethical to share replicator technology with planets that don't have 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.400 this kind of thing yet? Sure, and to make overall 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:42.360 commentary about how this, this incredible future is partially perfect 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.480 because nobody is hungry. Right, that's a big thing on 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:47.800 the show. That's the economics point. I guess you know. 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:52.440 There's this idea of a post scarcity economy in Star Trek, 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.600 which we can talk about later in this episode. Okay, 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:59.720 so how does this actually work on Star Trek? Okay, well, 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.560 I I'm very happy to have some angry Trek ease 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:06.640 correct me if I get this wrong. But presumably I 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:09.960 believe it works on the same principle as the transporter. 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:12.440 That is what I have read as well. Okay, so 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.760 the transporter, you get on the transporter, it takes all 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.279 the atoms in your body, converts them into energy, zaps 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.200 them somewhere else, and reassembles them from that energy into 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:28.880 matter there. So the replicator then would have to be 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.360 working a little bit differently, and that it's not taking 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:36.680 food from some transporter deck somewhere else and not to you. 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.640 It's just making it out of some other matter or energy. Right. 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.400 There's not a Starbucks on Klingon. That's that's shipping you 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.159 your muffins. Right, So it would be like if you 0:06:45.240 --> 0:06:48.240 got into the transporter and it transported you somewhere, but 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.719 turned you into a bunch of muffins, delicious muffins for 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:55.839 for the Klingons or whoever ordered them. Um, but you 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:58.800 wouldn't have to use live humans. Don't look so shocked, no, 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:03.800 I mean you could probably turn anything into muffins, right right. 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:05.479 And I think that that's the point of of of 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.880 these replicators, is that they're using waste materials from the ship. Um. 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:12.679 Again not necessarily humans as an all soil and green 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.320 but um, but but but other stuff that has been 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.200 used and they don't need anymore to to transfer into 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:21.360 delicious muffins. Okay, well, let's talk about the different ways 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:25.920 it could theoretically be working. That's one, it's taking waste material, 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.360 so taking matter and then changing that into other matter. Um. 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.680 And that could be done I could imagine at a 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.680 couple of different levels. One would be at the molecular 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.600 or atomic level. So say you throw in a bunch 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.480 of human excrement and trash from the cafeteria, just put 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:47.120 it right back in. And uh, I don't know what 0:07:47.200 --> 0:07:50.400 else they use, just stuff they don't want on the enterprise, 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.240 Old old Captain Kirk Laundry. I am done with this 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:58.640 keyboard right, yeah, bye bye, don't need it anymore. So 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.920 that gets broken down into atoms and molecules, and then 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:07.840 those get reassembled by some magical procedure into the food 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.800 you want to eat. And please, I'm open to correction 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.080 on this issue as well, But it would seem to 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.200 me that if you were just breaking it down to 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.200 the molecular or atomic level, you would be limited in 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.480 the kind of things you would produce, because you'd have 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.400 a certain number of carbon atoms and a certain number 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.840 of iron atoms, and you would have to rearrange those 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.960 into something that would use basically the same number of 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.920 the same kinds of atoms. Right, So, if you've got 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:40.520 a teacup and you want tuh, that's maybe a difficult conversion. Yeah, right, 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:42.520 I don't know what atoms are in a teacup. Yeah, 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:44.720 if you've got leftover juice and you want tea, maybe 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.800 that's a little bit easier to wrangle. I don't know. 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:50.360 I'd imagine the cup would be harder. I don't know 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.839 that this is all speculation, but at any rate, there's 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:55.720 a there would be a way to get around this, 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.240 right sure. Yeah, if you take this down to the 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.280 subatomic level, wherein your build holding the kinds of atoms 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.080 that you need, right, then you have the same parts 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:07.800 for all atoms, right, you need neutrons, protons, electrons. And 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:10.960 if you can break it down to that level, well 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:12.960 then you can make whatever atoms you need. You can 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:15.440 make whatever molecules you need, and you can make whatever 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.280 nanostructures you need, which build up and up and up 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.320 until you have whatever kind of thing you want to build. 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.079 It's the most basic, not the most basic, but the 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.280 farthest down the chain we'd need to go a good 0:09:28.280 --> 0:09:31.880 operative building block. Yeah, yeah, of course, there are some 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.000 questions about this because if you're talking about taking apart 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:41.440 atoms and then using the sub atomic particles, there's a 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.760 thing that happens when we split atoms. Yeah, yeah, that 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.679 whole nuclear vision thing or yes, yes, vision, I used 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.800 the correct word, uh is produces a great deal of 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:55.600 energy and so and I'm not sure that I would 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:57.959 personally want yeah, bombs going off every time. I just 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.200 want a cup of tea. Yeah, okay, So that's a 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:04.640 definitely a concern. Not to make it seem like just 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:07.360 breaking it down to the atomic or molecular level would 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.480 be totally a piece of cake. But let's think about 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:13.600 the other way, which is, instead of going from matter 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.800 to a different kind of matter, would it be possible 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.800 to just take energy, just straight up energy from the 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:23.000 ship's power plant and turn that into the atoms we 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.640 need in order to make our food. Uh. Theoretically, yes, 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.960 we do know about a process that's called pair production, 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:33.679 where where you can basically convert a photon into a 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:39.559 positron and an electron, electrons being you know, mattera UM. 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:43.440 But that's that's you know, at the single photon level, 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:46.680 and you're only creating electrons, and I'm not sure how 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.760 that becomes a cup of tea UM. Also, the the 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.679 amount of energy that it takes to kick off this 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.600 process is quite a bit of energy. Yeah, again, this 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:59.480 would be a problem at the physics level. I think 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.120 what we'd have an uh an amount of energy and 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:06.000 a scalability question here. But it is true that you 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.679 can turn energy into matter, just like you can turn 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.320 matter and energy with a nuclear reaction. You can split 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.520 a photon into an electron and a positron and those 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.600 two would fly off in opposite directions and and there 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.120 you'd have an electron. This is a massive particle it's 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:25.320 it's matter, um, and so that you could also just 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:27.680 think about it in terms of the Big Bang, Right, 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.800 So you have like expanding energy that cools and turns 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.440 into material material we know and love today. So that 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:41.480 is something that is theretically possible. Is it practical? Probably not. 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.640 It seems very doubtful to me. Yeah, possibly never. I mean, 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:49.560 considering that we're doing these kind of pair production experiments 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:53.240 at like the largest particle colliders on the planet in 0:11:53.320 --> 0:12:00.199 single units. Uh yeah, yeah, Okay, so if we just say, okay, 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.640 I believe, we just put on the I believe hat 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.000 and say it works, it works. Are they any good 0:12:06.040 --> 0:12:09.079 as chefs on the in the Star Trek universe at least? 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.160 And we're about to get to some some real facts, 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:15.400 don't worry. Oh no, everyone likes talking about the Star 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.480 Trek universe eternally. Um uh. You know, I think that 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:20.880 the characters on Star Trek all are a little bit 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:23.400 doubtful about that kind of thing, or not all of them, 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:28.360 but but the you got your foodies, you know. Yeah. 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.520 I think that Rikers sometimes through like dinner parties on 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:34.560 the on the Enterprise in order to show off his 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:39.240 renaissance mannishness and be really rykery about stuff. Yeah. Yeah, 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.240 and um, like he'd actually cook, could actually cook, Yeah, 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:44.839 make a point of cooking and show off to all 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:46.960 of his friends how good of a cook he was. 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.400 So is this like the star trek century equivalent of 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.040 the people who go out in the woods and bow 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.840 hunt elk these days? That just like cooking in a 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.600 walk is their equivalent of that? Yeah, although there's there's 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:01.840 always a quality issue. I mean, like, like you said, 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.720 it's a it's a replicator. It's providing sustenance and not 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.040 necessarily quality sustenance. Um. I think also like Picard had 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:12.320 a couple of jars of caviare stashed around because real 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:17.520 caviare is superior, according to him, to replicator caviare. Yeah. 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:19.760 And you can actually kind of imagine if this were 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.760 real technology. You can see why it would be the case. 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:27.480 It might be an issue of resolution basically, Like Okay, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:31.320 so you imagine you're an audio file and you love music, 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.520 and you're one of those people who you can you 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.120 say you can really hear the difference between an MP 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:40.920 three file a digitized version and hearing the music played live. Well, 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.160 I mean, I guess anybody can tell the difference between 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.200 MP three and hearing it live to some people don't 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.920 care that much, right right, right, Um, But there is 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.959 a there's a resolution difference. Anytime you take a real 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:56.160 world analog phenomenon and turn it into digital data, you 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.240 are you know, you're shaving off the edges. You're experiencing 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.760 a loss, right um. And there's also a slight question 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:07.040 of whether it's um healthy or or even ethical from 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:11.319 a from a basic human standpoint to eat replicator food 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.400 when you have the option to to grow food the 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.120 normal way. Um. That There was an episode of Deep 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:17.680 Space nine that dealt with that, where there was this 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.400 kind of like bloody ish group of colonists who, um, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.360 even when presented with the with the technology, basically refused 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.520 to use it. Huh. I didn't see that one Deep 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:30.040 Space nine. I think I'm one of the only like 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.000 five people on the planet who really liked that show. Well, 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:37.120 I wouldn't go there. But this, of course is a 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:41.520 it's a common idea that like technologically produced or assemboled 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:44.760 food in sci fi that's often seen as like you 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.160 can tell there's something wrong with it, Like in Cronenberg's 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.480 version of The Fly there's a part where they they've 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.359 got a teleporter pod in that movie and they teleport 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.440 a steak from one to the other and Gina Davis 0:14:56.440 --> 0:15:00.280 eats it and says, you know, yuck, it tastes synthetic. Yeah. Right, 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.960 But but there's been this this idea of hope for 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.680 this kind of artificial food concept for a really long time. 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.080 I mean going back to like the sixties with the 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.800 Jetsons and food pills. Oh it goes back before that, 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:16.200 Oh definitely. Yeah. How about the French chemist Pierre Eugene 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:20.720 Marsillen Marchillen mark. I don't do French names. Well Bertelo 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.040 I I did not look it up, so I'm okay. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:26.920 He's a French chemist named Bertolo, and he was he 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:29.600 was an important French chemist. But there I found this 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.440 great old article, uh called foods in the year two thousand, 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:38.120 Professor R. Bertolo's theory that chemistry will displace agriculture. And 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.720 that was by Henry J. W. Dam in uh McClure's 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:46.960 magazine September. Okay, so so they were looking forward to 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.880 foods in the in the incredible year two thousand. Yeah, 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:52.080 what will it be like in the year two thousand 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:56.840 and He did not imagine Chippotle. What he imagined was, well, 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.640 I mean, to a chemist back then, you can see 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.000 why this would make sense. He says, the foods we 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.320 eat are entirely made up of atoms. I mean, duh. 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.960 Most people don't know this, But basically you've got four 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:13.080 leading elements. You've got carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, with a 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.400 few others thrown in of course. Yeah, I mean, and 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.720 you can make the You can find all of those 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:22.080 elements and say, a piece of charcoal, a glass of water, 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.000 and a breath of air. Sure, so why can't we 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.840 turn those things into delicious food? Right? And that was 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.440 actually Burlow's idea. He was like, look, agriculture is on 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.800 the way out. Why are we raising crops the old 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:40.200 slow way? And yeah, why are we doing it like 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.960 that when we could just take these atoms and make 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:45.480 all the nutrients we need. Obviously there are a few 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:48.800 other elements too then, in addition to the ones he named, 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.360 But the principle basically holds and and so I don't 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.160 think he was quite imagining the star trek level of 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:59.760 the Replicator, but he was imagining a a cheap, plentiful 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.280 chemical synthesis of food, right, And he wasn't even the 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.160 only person working on the issue around that time. There 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:10.920 was one uh Gen Front who manufactured an artificial meat 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.600 from brewery and distillery wastes in nine and and I 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.560 mean the stuff was nutritionally superior to beef, but how 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:24.880 did it taste? Um Front in front of Front himself 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.119 has this really terrific quote in which he says it 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.720 would be a hundred times better if foods were without 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.560 odor or savor, for then we should eat exactly what 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:35.840 we needed and would feel a great deal better. What 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:40.560 seems certain is that such synthetic foods are nourishing. Okay, okay, 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:42.280 So what he was saying was that it doesn't matter 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:46.080 if it tastes and looks like cardboard, because it's good 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.920 for you, so eat it right well. And so they 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:54.159 were talking about uh having plentiful nutrition, which is a 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.640 different kind of thing than on Star Trek, but touches 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.240 some of the same themes of like a post scarcity idea. 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:06.679 In fact, Bertelow even seems to hint that he thinks 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:11.560 that perhaps this kind of chemical manufacturer of resources will 0:18:11.640 --> 0:18:15.919 make humans more peaceful. Basically, one of those like like 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.480 end all wars will be brought by artificial meat kind 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.320 of things. Well, it's an interesting idea. Yeah, if you 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.639 if you have something that can just easily produce the 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:29.280 resources we need, maybe conflicts will fade away. He also, 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:33.160 I think mentioned that something. There's something about the brutalizing 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.720 effect on humans of having to kill animals for meat 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:43.520 makes us, you know, yeah, angry people, poor ethical decision 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.040 making processes. I don't personally kill the animals I eat, 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.600 so perhaps I've I've been like shielded, like removed from 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.240 the fishing once when I was a kid. But that's 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.320 that's about it. Okay, But these are not the only 0:18:58.880 --> 0:19:02.560 past futurists have looked ahead and said, oh, chemical synthesis 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.840 of food, in fact, are one of our favorite people. Here, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.400 Arthur C. Clark predicted replicators pretty much like what they've 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:12.480 got on Star Trek. Uh. Yeah, and here you predicted 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.320 those for Oh don't know if we're on track for 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:21.920 that one, Arthur, But yeah, he predicted UH a universal replicator. 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:26.480 This is a quote universal replicator based on nanotechnology. UH 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:30.080 is now available to create any object, from gourmet meals 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.800 to diamonds. The only thing that has value is information 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.240 that was for the year on his future timeline. Right. 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:39.040 But but the press is really fond of kind of 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.560 citing Star Trek replicators every time some kind of new 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:47.000 product or technology comes out that that looks even vaguely promising, 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:49.640 right us, some of the recent stuff like like lab 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.280 grown beef. Oh yeah, so lab grown beef is really cool, 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:55.840 but it's not really in the same ballpark at all. 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.600 Oh no, No, it's an entirely different sport, I think. Yeah, okay, 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.919 so we've talked about that on this podcast before. But 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.520 lab grown beef is a brand new advance basically just 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:11.920 from last year. It's organically grown beef, so it's real beef. 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:16.240 It's not fake beef. It's just grown in in vitro, 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.640 in in in glass in a test tube rather than 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.119 in a cow's body. Right. So you take some stem 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.639 cells out of a cow's muscle, and then you create 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.560 the right lab conditions and you just allow these cells 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:29.640 to multiply and make cow muscles in a little dish. 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.119 You add them together and you can make beef out 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.360 of that, and and that's great. You know, it offers 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.120 potential future advantages in terms of things like consuming less 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:42.560 energy to produce the meat, and it avoids animal cruelty, 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.240 and so that's awesome. But it's not really anything like 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:48.840 on demand food synthesis. I mean, one thing I'd say 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:51.800 is that it's only one kind of protein. It's not 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:53.840 like it's making you a plate of a meat and 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:57.359 three sides like the Star Trek replicator would. And it 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:02.000 takes time and energy to grow. Uh. It's a slow process, 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:06.600 not an instantaneous on demand thing. Sure. Sure. There's also 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.760 nothing cost free about it. Oh yeah, it's possibly way 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.800 more costful. Expensive would be the word I'm looking for. Uh, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:17.560 than than just growing a cow, would be right, It's 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:21.320 definitely more expensive. Now, the the advantage, I guess would 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:23.160 be that it takes less energy in the long run 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:27.680 and has a smaller car carbon foot print. Yeah. Um, 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:33.280 But another big buzzword three D printing. Three D printing food. Okay, Yeah, 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:35.960 let's let's talk about a few of these. Uh. I 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:38.040 want to talk about the NASA one, the NASA pizza. 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:42.719 NASA pizza okay, so an pizza of the stars, this 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.959 is real. NASA announced it would fund a project on 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.440 three D printed food, So they're getting into future nom 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:53.080 noms for space and It gave a DW five thousand 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.359 dollars to a Texas based company called Systems and Materials 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.280 Research Corporation to develop three D printed food for future 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.920 space mission. All right, the prototype uses shelf stable powders 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:08.800 and oils mixed with water to construct stuff stuff stuff, 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.960 you know, dough or tomato, sauce or whatever. Yeah, there 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.320 is video online of this, uh, this printer prototype making 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:20.159 a pizza, and let me tell you, looks absolutely delicious 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:24.600 if you are into death by cafeteria food. Not to 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:27.240 downplay their achievement at all, I'm sorry. I shouldn't make fun. 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.639 But the idea that you've got a print or printing 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:34.200 a pizza is pretty cool. But it doesn't look like 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:41.080 the my favorite pizza. It looks a little bit strange, um, 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.280 you know. And and any time that you're that you're 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:47.679 working with shelf stable ingredients, it's not an ideal situation 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:50.320 for nutrition, I think. Yeah, and laying them on a 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:55.880 substrate one tiny dot at a time. Yeah, still still 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.560