Minecraft is a place where people are, so it doesn't take long for it to become a curséd rathole like every other thing we touch. Gabriel related a tale of woe to me in this vein that I lightly embroidered and then he drew it and now it's a strip.
He has been pushing for the acquisition of a 3D printer on my part since he first plugged in his Reality Engine, and I can appreciate that we have entered a new era of human capacity. He has also offered to print for me anything I might want, which seems like the money saving option here...? I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about these choices. It would be as though the village elder approached my hut and said "Take up your sword and enter the Judging Wood," and then, after a pause, "Or, you know, I could do it. Whatever."
If I take up a hobby that does not involve increasing the order of various systems, what you might call Games, it had God Damn well better result in something I can eat or drink. Optimally, it will make enough that I can give away, cementing my utility to the tribe. This is, of course, in addition to my other contributions, none of which spring immediately to mind. It might be because the contributions are too vast, and I am too close to them. It might be that my entire visual field is filled with such contributions!
I have heard that this is a thing that happens.
The truth is that I'm surrounded by 3D printers of various kinds, they just don't make frogs or knives or Ghosts.
I have a machine that turns hard little green seeds into a drink that I drink every morning, for example. Purely as a matter of percentages you probably drink this drink also. People roast coffee on metal spoons over wood fires, they are doing this somewhere on Earth right now, so roasting your own coffee is absolutely something you can manage. You might start with a fluid bed machine that is essentially like a Helghast popcorn popper, which might roast one or two days coffee at most, and eventually you might graduate to larger scale drum roaster so you can reclaim time or duplicate the process for others. People freak out when you give them fresh coffee, they treat you like a Warlock. But it is really just a seed that you make super, super hot for about a half hour or so. These seeds cost a third of the price of coffee, they are not hard to cook, and the result is functionally speaking an elixir. That's something you can have every day.
With a couple friends I backed a device that will let me do a similar thing, but for beer; I just did my first brew on the Picobrew Zymatic and I find myself somewhat still and meditative about it. I sort of can't believe what I just did, particularly after having done it in the traditional way. It's functionally speaking a Beer Rapid Prototyping Machine. If you've ever worked somewhere that had soda, a bar or a restaurant, you've seen those tall, five gallon kegs that hide under the counter. This machine essentially reimagines that ubiquitous tank as a brewing kettle and does it in a smart way. Making beer is like making yogurt in that you are essentially creating a molecular battlefield and doing everything you can to ensure that your side wins. That's page one of this hobby. There are more.
So I do have a 3D printer, Michael, a couple actually, except when they are done printing I put the results in my mouth.
(CW)TB out.
