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Sounds a lot like the CHON (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen) food I've read about in some science fiction novels I've read. It would make sense that if you
by scarygliders 5y ago
Sounds a lot like the CHON (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen) food I've read about in some science fiction novels I've read.
It would make sense that if you could "print" food from CHON then to restock during your inter-galactic travels you'd just need to find some nice asteroids with the requisite materials.
- ptr2voidStar 5y agoFascinating! I've never heard of CHON before. I like this idea ...
- TeMPOraL 5y agoI'm thinking higher level than that, for practical reasons. Assembling complex things - particularly biologics - from raw atoms is a painful, slow, and energy-intensive work. The growth rates of various organisms on Earth give you a ballpark of how fast you can get with this. I for one would love replicators to work faster if possible :). I feel a better idea would be to make universal feedstock (or family of those) out of complex molecules - perhaps proteins, or protein-like nanostrutures. Molecules selected for having energy advantage in bulk reactions and precision nanowork required to assemble the most common things people replicate.
- whatshisface 5y agoCHON food would not really work because it doesn't have any sodium or chloride, and who wants to live without salt? (But more seriously, we need our mineral nutrients to survive.)
- barbecue_sauce 5y agoWell, then just add an S and a Cl in there.
- npongratz 5y ago>> ... because it doesn't have any sodium or chloride ... > Well, then just add an S and a Cl in there. If we're talking sodium, wouldn't "S" instead be "Na"? Though I'm guessing sulfur has some importance as well.