Technology for being more self-sufficient?

I think there is a very thin line between technologies making us more self-sufficient and technologies  that seemingly do this, but actually make us more dependent on technology and make our lives more complicated. Also it is important to scrutinise technology from the perspective of humans being social animals and cosidering technology that supports social interaction rather than creating a self-sufficient, but isolated and alienated environment for people. Of course, when it comes to exploration, technology help us overcome challenges and also preserve human life. The past few months of working life increasingly moving online has taught us to understand the importance of being there physically, so I have thought about technology that would make exploration in person safer reaching currently unreacheable froniters.

 Any technology making it possible to easily utilise garbage would be great for becoming more self-sufficient in a way that supports all and takes weight off everybody's shoulder. The replicator is a great idea in Star Trek, and physics make it impossible to make something out of nothing, I guess the replicator must be a tool utilising leftovers and garbage. It is not enough for the replicator to become a reality to have the technology that creates things like a 3D printer. For it to become a reality scientists need to become alchemists - to make the necessary particles available, for example to create iron out of chalk. Such technology would not only be a great relief for the Earth suffering from pollution, but it would also make it possible to travel light, to not carry to many things or too much raw material for any trip.

The other kind of technology that would support humans as exlplorers should be something related to travel. I don't only mean space travel having the possibility to travel far very fast, but we still have a frontier to explore on Earth: deep sea.

In these past few months we have also seen a growing reliance on technology for learning. This is also something really useful if people want to travel far and live remotely, on any frontier, but we have also learnt that we must not rely on technology only. The same is true for medical technology. While robots may be better at the technical part, healing depends more on psychology than on technology or medicine, thus we need the human element.

All in all, I think there is a danger in celebrating technology too much, and too much emphasis on self-sufficient methods may lead many to become similar to doomsday preppers. We need to be critical when implementing technology for this. We need to embrace what makes our life easier and allows more time for exploration - probably not only physically, but by learning new things, trying new things -, but reject those that physically isolate and alienates us.