05.22.13
The dogshit of American tech
More belief that computers and digitization handles all problems, a feature story in the Washington Post on a grant for a 3D food printer, billed for Mars missions and as something that might combat world hunger.
So when do the 48 million on food stamps get it?
Anyway, nobody’s going to Mars in my lifetime. Never gonna happen.
Texas-based Systems and Materials Research Corp. has been selected for a $125,000 grant from NASA to develop a 3-D printer that will create “nutritious and flavorful??? food suitable for astronauts, according to the company’s proposal. Using a “digital recipe,??? the printers will combine powders to produce food that has the structure and texture of, well, actual food. Including smell.
The project — the details of which NASA plans to finalize this week — was presented at the Humans 2 Mars Summit in Washington earlier this month. At the presentation, Anjan Contractor, an engineer at SMRC and the project manager, explained how the idea originated: he had used a 3-D printer to print chocolate for his wife.
SMRC said part of its motivation for seeking the NASA grant is to pursue the even loftier goal of fighting world hunger.
“There isn’t some silver-bullet technology that’s going to solve hunger problems,??? said Gawain Kripke, policy director for food security and hunger at Oxfam America.
My, my, Anjan Contractor made chocolate for his wife. Isn’t that nice. Since this is just the kind of tech pabulum the upper class and its shoe-shiners like, he’ll be in every newspaper by Friday. But at least someone had the sense to rain a little on the premature victory parade.
Now, without using Google, name one American astronaut.
And not the guy who sang the sissified version of “Space Oddity,” he was Canadian.
There are, obviously, good things done with 3-D printing.
But the American culture of lickspittle guarantees that 3-D plastic total crap gets all the attention. Which must be really irritating to 3-D printing manufacturers.