Close to fifty years ago, Zenna Henderson wrote a short story, The Anything Box, about a little girl and an invisible box. The box allowed the child to see the world she wished existed. More recently, “anything box” has come to refer to future nanotechnology devices capable of creating any item requested.
Farfetched? Well, the anything box of science fiction may be closer than you think. View this YouTube video, about Z Corporation creating a wrench: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw&feature=youtube_gdata_player.
I checked the video out on the Snopes Urban Legend site and decided its content is for real. According to Snopes, any differences between the wrench and its copy (shown in the video) happened on purpose. The explanation of those differences was edited out of the video due to time considerations. For a discussion of 3-D print technology, follow the below link to the Snopes Urban Legend entry about the Z Corporation video: http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/3dprinter.asp.
In the meanwhile, I’m not sure what I’d request from an anything box. Manufacturers continually discontinue items I use, such as shoes and undergarments. Hmmm….
Warm wishes,
Laurel Anne Hill (Author of “Heroes Arise”)
http://www.laurelannehill.com