DNA of Things: Speculative Design Analysis of Indefinite Duplication
Yaniv Erlich by most accounts would appear to be a man that just enjoys carrying a little trinket in his backpack. Nothing at all notable, or discernible, and the trinket looks like the kind of small plastic toy one would get at a Family Dollar in a quarter machine. However, looks can be deceiving.
This is not a normal toy bunny. Even though it was printed in Switzerland, it’s also not made of chocolate. But if one were to break it apart, its superpower would be revealed. Because from each of those broken pieces you can get more bunnies. It’s an item capable of real life indefinite duplication. Even if you only had a small chip of plastic you could access the blueprints and the 3D printer would be given instructions to create a new one.
It’s mechanism to work is not incredibly sophisticated as it’s an emerging technology and its duplicity is reliant on the owners access to a 3D printer and the items encoded DNA. The process at this point in time has requirements that not every household has access to, even if they did purchase items with synthetic replicable DNA sequencing (which as of now would not be an easy process for manufacturers to implement).
However, within the next 20 years (conservatively), 3D printers will become as common as computers are today. And the process by which Erlich and his collaborators have implemented this will become a more accessible technology. At which time companies that embrace synthetic DNA encoding in their products will be at a large advantage.
The reason it will be tremendously advantageous for businesses is that they will be able to provide an immortal purchase. Most things have a lifespan. A phone can only work so long before things wear down and it eventually breaks. By encoding it’s very DNA into the physical product we are in essence giving it an indefinite lifetime of use even if the object is mostly destroyed.
One of the largest reasons people don’t purchase luxury items is because they’re afraid the item will break and they cannot afford to fix or replace it. With those no longer being factors in decision making processes, this technology will affect shopping trends and price points for many consumers.
You’ll also see a tremendous impact on the environment as people waste less. Previously used plastic can be melted down and reused in combination with 3D printers. So many of the plastic items that we see thrown away can simply be repurposed back into a new unbroken version of the original product that was bought. This eliminates a lot of plastic waste from our landfills and oceans.
Not embracing this by adapting in the market will also come with consequences. Companies whose bottom line relies on the wear and replacement of their products rather than innovation or sustainability of their designs will need to make some better choices. No longer just for their own consciences in how they treat their consumers or the environment, but because they won’t be able to compete. Budget stores will see large drops as people realize over time they’ll save money by purchasing things they will never need to replace or fix out of their homes. This will fundamentally change the consumer market because the consumers themselves will have new expectations and a new normal.
From a speculative design perspective this could potentially be a game changer with the right societal applications. I can’t wait to follow this plastic white rabbit and see what wonderland he brings us to.
Want more? Please feel free to read the original article reporting this advancement from WIRED here: https://www.wired.com/story/these-plastic-bunnies-got-a-dna-upgrade-next-up-the-world/
