| Food based 3d printers would be a game changer. And I don't mean something like a CNC cookie froster, but a machine that would have a Protein / carb / fat / vitamin slurry mix as the "filament" that could then combine the filament slurries into a wide variety of food textures. Probably something like beyond meats reconstituted on the fly from dry ingredients and water. Add in the convenience of a microwave / air fryer & a grill plate and you could essentially end world hunger even if most people would prefer authentic foodstuffs. I don't even think anyone is authentically conceptualizing such a device, much less attempting to prototype one, but it would be the most powerful and life transforming food-related invention since the microwave. The engineering issues to overcome are substantial, probably within an order of magnitude of the amount of work needed for space flight to become possible. The costs to first develop the processes, then a machine that could run them, and then miniaturize such a machine to fit into the average home would be astronomical. Being able to convert easily growable food stock into shelf-stable reconsitutable materials for such machines would resolve a lot of the food supply chain issues in the world. Every family would have one because while you may use it even more rarely than your crock pot it sure would be handy to have around. You could set it on a timer alongside your coffee pot and have a freshly made hot breakfast sandwich waiting on you when you wake up in the morning, and thanks to a subscription service or a simple library of available recipes you could have a freshly made dinner waiting on you when you got home from work. And of course, it wouldn't eliminate the want or need for fresh veggies and meats and dairy products, or the desire to cook fun and interesting foods at home for you and your family, at least not for most people. I'll stop my rant now, but it's an amazing idea to me and I hope someone will read this and get inspired. |