[nilof]

http://www.communistrobot.com/viewblog.php?id=357

As they can produce most products out of air and water(oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen), assuming cheap/free energy they could effectively turn most consumer products into intellectual property(blueprints).

Now, as this means that they could effectively make almost anything abundant, would this technology be useful in a technocracy?

[Photonmaton]

This is where I'm having trouble seeing where a technate really deserves the kind of effort needed to make a society based on abundance. When capitalism reaches this kind of technological level where everyone is living in a de facto post-scarcity largely thanks to nanotechnology and the like it seems like the goals of a technocracy are acheived anyway without the need of a huge restructuring of society and a planned economy. If nanotech becomes so pervasive and cheap in the future within the price-system, freeing people from having to work for basic substinence and allowing them control over their environment in an eco-friendly way , then technocracy seems just uneccesary. As you can see from my crazy over-hyphened ideology under my avatar I've been trying to coincide capitalism and technocracy recently .

[nilof]

You mean as a way to allow the capitalist economy to survive robots taking over 50% of the the current jobs?

Actually, a rather functional workaround has been imagined by Marshal Brain in his work named ''robotic freedom''.
http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-freedom.htm

While that would allow the capitalist economy to survive, as another ''band-aid'' required by the capitalist economy, it still wouldn't be as efficient as technocracy. The price system spawns a concentration of wealth, and especially, corruption.

[Lux]

The society we see today is actually employing the post-scarcity environment by printing debt, while artificially enhancing consumption in order to continue economic growth.

A technate is not a planned economy, since it is not deciding how everything should be produced. The decisions about production are left to the individuals through their energy certifikates.

Energy accounting

[jdlech]

Although this could be exciting to watch, I've seen enough "up and coming" technological attractions that never came to fruition to justify my refusal to speculate.

We can only work with the technology we already have. It would be somewhat foolish to incorporate technology that we don't yet have into our plans. A lot of companies have crashed against those rocks and sank.

[U184]

This Tech though hopeful, is only capable of creating nano size or slightly larger objects. Currently Scientists world wide are working on ways of completing this task.

One promising way is to use the Nanites to work with a substance some what akin to plaster pairs.

However with the advent of a similar deice that works somewhat like a photocopier that sends 3D objects the Nano conversion may be phased out for a while due to cost effectiveness.

So for the moment Nano tech will continue to be the play toys of the rich.. and the lucky.

[MB.]

Luckily a technate would not require such advanced systems to function. Certainly the development of nano-fabrication technology will be pursued, however, it is by no means essential for the adoption of a technocratic system of governance.

I imagine most fabrication will be done at decentralized warehouses (ex-minimalls perhaps?), eventually diffusing to homes and residences.