Nanofabricators, DRM and Forced Scarcity

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Langy

Why does the government/corp have to be 'evil' to want to regulate the nanofabricators? They could have extremely good reasons for doing so (such as the ones I mentioned about them being useful for WMD creation and for completely destroying society in short order if they were unregulated).

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.