Nanofabricators, DRM and Forced Scarcity

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

Minimum price will still be the materials, power and Nanofac time to produce and usage, which costs can be significant even before any profit margin comes into play.

Yes, but unless you're proposing that demand for bioroids drives up those prices drastically that doesn't lead to the consequence I was arguing against.

[MatthewVilter]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Not if bioroid prices emerge from competition between bioroid suppliers rather than the maximum anyone would be willing to pay for one.

Good point.

Does this lead to a scenario where labor union leaders arrange for bioroid manufacturers to form a cartel? o_O

[Langy]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Because it's a case of the slippery A Bit (or Lot) Of Liberty for A Bit Of Security? Terrorists will have custom-built/rooted/modified nanofabs; regular decent citizens will have to suffer for a negligible gain of security.

To make there be zero Open Source / Public Domain stuff? That basically means that patents never expire, IP charity is prohibited etc. etc.

Sounds like either willingly making a Dystopia, or making a Straw Dystopia, depending on nuances.

No, it just means that the nanofab itself is a proprietary system and they don't allow people to mess with it or print anything that hasn't been specially prepped for it by some organization or another and distributed by it (like the app store on an Apple smart phone).

Also: I'm not sure why we're talking about bioroids in this thread. They aren't a good feature for the type of game the OP seems to want to run, as they'd essentially render humans obsolete and worthless. That's a completely different type of dystopia, and the OP doesn't seem to want a dystopia at all.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Sounds SoD-straining and/or very hard to set up.

I agree, but it is the best way I can think up to get what the OP asked for.

[Seneschal]

Originally Posted by Langy

No, it just means that the nanofab itself is a proprietary system and they don't allow people to mess with it or print anything that hasn't been specially prepped for it by some organization or another and distributed by it (like the app store on an Apple smart phone).

Also: I'm not sure why we're talking about bioroids in this thread. They aren't a good feature for the type of game the OP seems to want to run, as they'd essentially render humans obsolete and worthless. That's a completely different type of dystopia, and the OP doesn't seem to want a dystopia at all.

It's a fair point that nanotechnology advanced enough to fabricate almost all consumer goods from generic mush might inevitably be used to build bioroids.

But, though the financial discussion here is completely beyond me, I still think the human-rights aspect of bioroids completely overshadows it. I see no way that unambiguously sapient people being treated as property wouldn't be nipped in the bud by various advocacy groups and public outrage. "What if it's happy with its job?" is not much of a grey area either; it's just brainwashing.

Even just making bioshells with NAIs inside might be controversial; working alongside human-like-but-dead-inside automatons might trigger an uncanny-valley response for a lot of people, and more than a few religions would see their human form as confusing at best, and blasphemous at worst.