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Comment by personlurking | Hacker News Reader

This makes me think of the idea of losing one's phone or laptop and not worrying because the hardware was super cheap, and your data is completely safe and transferable.

But for the idea to transfer over to personal belongings, there would have to be some sort of scanning of each personal item in one's home, to the point that AI and 3D printing could print off a perfect copy.

Let's imagine a good friend dies and all you have to remember him is a handmade gift he gave you on your last b-day. Your home catches fire but you can print off a perfect copy. Do you care? And how much do you care?

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I have a habit of taking a picture of something sentimental before getting rid of it. It's not that I wish to print it back out again, more that if I ever feel go need to scratch the itch down memory lane I'll have something to look at. Seems like a good compromise vs toting around an ever increasing pile of precious garbage. Since I've been playing with a VR headset, I've been sort of wishing there was a way of easily take a 3d scan or volumetric photo so I can revisit a place or item when I want to.

This is the approach taken in Star Trek it seems. Very few personal possessions in general. Anything you want can be replicated for free. Obviously on the starships, personal furniture isn't encouraged though.

Crewmen's quarters seem to have a lot of personal art objects.

> Do you care? And how much do you care?

Probably enough that I wouldn't actually make a copy. A perfect copy still isn't the original item.

With that said, the overwhelming majority of belongings don't actually have that kind of sentimental importance. Generally somebody's going to like, say, their favorite chair because it's that model of chair, not because it's that specific chair, and it's only going to have special importance if it's otherwise impossible to replace (thereby permanently losing out on the favored qualities of the favorite chair).

And how much did you care to receive it in the first place if such things are easily manufacturable/replicable anyway?

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