Manuel Rendon of Timeplast and 4d programmable matter

Meet Manuel Rendon, certified polymer science inventor and CEO of Timeplast, Inc. My first interview episode of 2025. Manuel joins the ranks of Scott Adams, the late John McAfee and others. 4d matter In the world of plastics, everything pretty much repels water. But what if you could create a plastic that truly dissolves in water quickly, leaves no forever chemicals, and is programmable? Oh, and it’s already readily available to the public. This is what Manuel and Timplast have created, and he has the patents and the materials to prove it. Here are the seven patents for Manuel Rendón with links to their respective pages: US Patent 9181412: Composition for the degradation of plastic US Patent 10954354: Upcycling process for unsorted waste stream US Patent 11639424: Extrusion process of a manufacturing system for plastic US Patent 10967470: Degradable plastic composition US Patent 11390532: Method for manufacturing a plastic product with a reduced environmental impact US Patent 11634782: Process for recycling mixed plastic waste US Patent 11620641: Additive for reducing the environmental impact of plastic products You can click on each link to view the full patent details. They’ve created a substance that’s available for those, like me, who are 3d printing technology evangelists. By adjusting the thickness in various ways, you can ‘program’ the object to dissolve on a schedule that you determine. Imagine water bottles that you toss into a lake, and they completely dissolve. What about a plant waterer that waters on a schedule? Biomedical products? Labels on food containers that degrade and warm of spoilage? Sometimes when you print a 3d printed object (like my psych charms) it has features that the printer cannot create without the help of a support. Think of a scaffolding holding up an overhang, or the outstretched arms of a statue. You can print the supports in the same plastic, or with special support material (if you are lucky enough to have multiple printing heads. But you then still have to break it away carefully, and then sand out the edges. But with Timeplast, you just submerse your model in water and only the supports dissolve. There is support material like this already, but it does not dissolve in the same way. Note that Timeplast’s goal is mass production in traditional ways, but makes the time-mass available to small hobbyists in the form of Timeplast also produces a device that essentially breaks down anything you put into it (except for mundane commercial plastics—with nothing but water. It is called the Pabyss™ (as in Plastic Abyss). I’m hoping Timeplast will take my suggestion and rename it the Molecular Disintegrator because I cannot imagine anyone (especially tech-savy nerd dudes) who wouldn’t want to say they own a Molecular Disintegrator™. Join us Join my fascinating discussion in which we cover everything from 3d printing to the Cardeshev scale, the saving humanity to contacting Elon Musk about joining forces to create a better world for us all. If you are into 3d printing and didn’t know this was available, or are concerned about the environment and want to learn that there is a realistic, provable solution, or just want to hear my chat with a dual-brained inventor (who happens to be the CEO of a company creating IP that makes Nestle pay attention), give this a listen. A note about the video The select clips from the video interview are available on Patreon (it’s free). You can go there to discuss. The audio (as usual) episode is available here, and wherever you listen to podcasts (iTunes, Spotify, etc.) References: How much real estate do you have in the 4th dimension? Three voices Episode | Three Voices Book Manuel’s video on contacting Elon Musk Social media for Timeplast https://www.facebook.com/TimePlastOfficial https://www.instagram.com/timeplastusa https://youtube.com/@timeplastinc Transcript: The Future of Materials: A Conversation with Manuel Rendon of Timeplast Mark Bradford: Hello there. I’m here today with Manuel Rendon of Timeplast. Hello, and welcome. Manuel Rendon: Hi, hello. How are you? Mark: I’m well, and I’m so glad you were able to join us. As I normally do, I ask my guests to tell us what they do. Manuel: I’m the founder of Timeplast. I’m an environmental engineer, and I have a deep love for science, chemistry in particular. I’m an avid enthusiast for technology. Mark: It’s fascinating when two technologies meet, like environmental science and plastics. You’ve created something amazing. Manuel: Yes, it’s been a long journey. The idea that has been in the back of my mind for the longest time is, what will the future of humanity look like? I was blown away by the Kardashev scale, which is how physicists look for alien life in outer space—by searching for signs of Type One, Two, or Three civilizations. Right now, we are a Type Zero civilization, and plastic is one of the most important challenges we have. It’s an existential threat. The Real Problem with Plastic Manuel: People used to be more concerned about macroplastic pollution—straws in the nostrils of a turtle or plastic floating in the ocean. But the real problem is microplastic pollution. It accumulates in the tissue of living organisms, and with each generation, you have a higher concentration. Mothers are passing their microplastic levels to their babies in the womb. Since plastic repels water down to the molecular level, there’s nothing we can do about it. It becomes a question of, at what point will this become a real existential threat to our reproductive levels? Mark: It’s interesting that you’ve taken such a global humanitarian issue and packaged it into something people can use today, like water-soluble supports for their 3D prints. Manuel: The 4D printing filaments are a byproduct of our portfolio of materials. We developed from scratch a new type of material that’s 70% composed of water. It’s counterintuitive, but you can test it by putting it in a microwave. Conventional plastic does nothing, but Timeplast will boil and explode. Humanity discovered materials that repel water, but that contradicts the grand chemistry of our planet and even our own bodies. The question is, how do you make a water-soluble material water-resistant at the same time? As Francis Bacon said, “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.” From Raw Material to a 4D Product Manuel: We had this material, but it’s difficult to sell a raw material directly to consumers. I thought I needed to create a consumer-oriented product, which is why we have the 3D printing filaments. But since you can program the time it takes for these filaments to dissolve in the presence of water, you’re really talking about four-dimensional objects, which is the most interesting part. Mark: That was one of the things that really jumped out at me. You’re saying this isn’t just a 3D object; you’ve programmed it to not exist under the right circumstances in two days, two months, or two years. Manuel: Yes. We just came back from Formnext in Frankfurt, one of the largest 3D printing conventions in the world. Even for that advanced, scientific-oriented community, our filaments were counterintuitive. Nobody really knows what to do with the additional dimension of time. That’s why I came up with a new 4D object myself, which I call Bluminight. The idea is to grow a tree in the middle of the Sahara desert without human intervention. You can design a “seed pod” where each channel dissolves at a specific time—two days, two weeks, and so on—allowing the seed to receive water and nutrients for years into the future. That’s just one of the many applications. Mark: The programmability makes complete sense. If one layer dissolves in X minutes, then two layers dissolve in two times X minutes. You’re literally programming time into the object. Manuel: Exactly. We’ve also started selling our materials as a support filament for 3D printing because people understand that better. The current support filament, PVA, is very brittle and hard to remove. Our material is an elastomer, so it’s flexible like TPU but water-soluble like PVA. You can put it in water for a few seconds and then pull the entire support structure away in a single go. An Answer to a Question We Haven’t Figured Out Yet Mark: When I first saw this, I thought, “This is an answer to a question we haven’t quite figured out yet.” I see the biological applications, but I feel like there’s an even greater potential here, maybe in safety. For example, when people drive into water, sometimes they can’t get their seatbelts off. Imagine if the seatbelts just dissolved in that much water. Manuel: That’s a great idea. A contest would be incredible; we’re definitely going to take notes on that. To help people understand, we talk about a dissolvable bikini. It’s silly, but it makes people realize that in the presence of water, a surface can disappear. But you don’t need an ocean. You can program a bottle of milk to turn red right before it’s about to expire by having an inner layer dissolve and release a pigment. You can have zero plastic waste pre-programmed into the object. When you tap into the evolutionary dynamics of our world, you get much more advanced technologies. Mark: As an engineer and inventor, how do you manage your time, energy, and resources when it comes to creativity, managing the company, and coming up with new ideas? Manuel: Growing a business is an incredibly difficult task. You’re up against big companies with incredible inertia, and you only have innovation on your side. That’s why most big technologies come from smaller companies. My passion is to help society become a Type One civilization. That fuels me. Otherwise, what are we doing here? Mark: I’m very attracted to talking to people who I call “dual-brained,” who have both the logic and the creativity, and they kind of fight it out constantly. It’s amazing to have the creativity to say, “I can create something from nothing,” and then switch back to the logistics and logic to figure out how it will work. Manuel: There’s a balance. When you come up with a functional chemical pathway that has never been solved before, you have two ways to go: you either publish it in a scientific magazine and aim for a Nobel Prize, or you take the path of a patent to create a business. There’s less prestige in the patent side, but you have an opportunity to create value. One of our first patents was acquired by Nestlé. It was a great experience. I wanted to become a service company providing chemical solutions, but I noticed I had so many technologies that I said, “Why don’t I create a single material that could encapsulate everything we know?” That’s what Timeplast is. My team often has to tell me to focus because I’m coming up with paints, glues, fishing lines… I am the visionary, more than the businessman. Mark: It’s interesting that you were called a “serial inventor.” I don’t like that term. It’s been hijacked to mean a lack of commitment, but that’s not what it means. You can’t have a creative mind and not create things. They may seem dissimilar, but often they come from the same core. Manuel: Absolutely. I have written down at least a thousand patent ideas. I also have an idea that’s bigger than anything we can accomplish by ourselves: the idea of a new city. I call it a “Singular City.” It combines gaming, science, 3D printing, and cryptocurrency to create communities on floating structures in international waters, something like the Homestead Act of 1862. I cannot fathom how a young, healthy human being will spend their entire life paying for a house and a vehicle. We have an incredible potential to change that. This is my idea to free humans from the economic burden that society has placed on them. Mark: That’s really amazing. You reminded me of something Elon Musk said about his patents—that he wouldn’t pursue them because he wanted to give other companies the ability to stand up on their own. Manuel: It’s definitely possible. And for that, I would like to ask for your help. I have a personal project that could benefit humanity tremendously if we all get together behind it. The only thing I need is to have a meeting with Elon Musk for this to take off. I am actively looking to have a meeting with him. If anybody listening has any point of contact, if you can help me out, I would really appreciate it. Mark: I think you’re in a position for him to hear you because of your patents and what you’ve done. He typically listens to people with a track record. I will do everything I can and will certainly do a public reach out to see if I can get any support for that as well. It’s an honorable direction. Manuel: Thank you so much, Mark. This has been very interesting. I’m sorry about my English; this spoken language is a bottleneck. I cannot stress how much better I sound in Spanish. Mark: I so appreciate you speaking the language that I know. I will let you go and I really appreciate your time. Manuel: No, thank you, Mark, and thank you everyone who’s been listening. 7/30/25 UPDATE Timeplast’s Factory Tour 2025 and Pabyss firest activation.

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