Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Wolfram is a data analytics pioneer. However, as people become increas-
ingly fascinated with analyzing their personal data, soon Wolfram's habits will
be the norm. The Quantiied Self movement is growing rapidly. In a way, it's
about technology—DNA analysis, sensors, and analytical tools. But it's also
about a person's relationship with their body.
Biometric data and precise, multi-material computer-guided food pro-
duction will open up new frontiers in health. A 3D printer, complete with
cartridges of foodstuffs optimized precisely for your bodily needs, will read
wireless signals in real time from sensors on your body. Like a personalized
chef and nutritionist in one, your kitchen 3D printer will print out your per-
fect meal, timed exactly to the minute you walk through the front door. Your
printer will read GPS data from your car so it will know if you're caught in
trafic or lingering late at work.
Processed food
Printing custom food, even healthy and nutritionally optimized food, raises
philosophical questions and stirs people's emotions. 3D printed food is pro-
cessed food. Like bioprinting, tissue engineering, and particle accelerators,
food printing could be viewed as a direct assault on the natural world.
Processed food is frequently blamed (and rightfully so) for contributing to
diseases of modern civilization: obesity, cancer, and heart disease. In develop-
ing nations, critics of processed food point out that mass produced processed
food imported from faraway places has cannibalized traditional, more eco-
friendly and nutritionally valuable methods of food production. Trans fats,
reined grains, excess salt and high fructose corn syrup are villains when it
comes to maintaining a lean, well-nourished body.
Mass-produced processed food, sometimes called “Big Food,” is prone to
massive outbreaks of bacterial infections. Fast food chains have sickened hun-
dreds of customers by serving infected meat. A typical processed food contains
dozens of synthetic ingredients that give food its texture and color, preserve
it, sweeten it, or somehow enhance its lavor.
Worst of all, processed food can taste bad. True, potato chips taste pretty
good. But there's no comparison between a mass produced grocery store peach
and a peach (fresh from the tree) bought at a roadside stand in New Jersey
in July.
