I do not consider myself to be very old, but in my short lifetime I can say I have witnessed several amazing technological advancments. I have seen video games progress from 2-D, side scrolling adventures, to 3-D, high production value works of art. I have witnessed the cellphone go from a not so portable brick like device with crappy reception, to a sleek and sexy phone that connects us with everything we need to know. And most importantly my generation has witnessed the ridiculously rapid advancment of computing power and the effect this has had on society. However the next technological advancement will undoubtedly trump all of these and it is something I only recently have become aware of. It’s called 3-D printing.
A 3-D printer lays down material
If you are not aware of this a 3-D printer, like the name suggest, can create a three dimensional object. It does so by laying down material, one layer at a time until a product is completed. The technology for this has been around since 1984, but only recently have the printers become advanced enough to actually be useful. Originally you could only print simple objects using a wax-like plastic material but now complex three dimensional objects can be created using a variety of materials, including metal and most recently living cells. The implications are this are of course massive, if you broke a part for your blender you could potentially just print a replacement, using a couple cents worth of plastic, instead of buying a whole new blender (because companies these days have apparently given up on the idea of selling replacement parts). Or if your printer was big enough you could just print an entire blender in the first place, crazy! And if research continues, soon hospitals could start printing replacement organs for transplant patients instead of waiting for a donor. However the effects this will have extend far beyond your personal life, many economists are now saying this could change the very foundation of the industrial societies we live in.
The term economists have applied to 3-D printing is”additive manufacturing” which contrasts with the most common form of production today, “subtractive manufacturing”. Currently, if you wanted to produce a complex product you would most likely need a factory with multiple assembly lines creating each component. Then at the end you would combine all the pieces into your finished product and then send it off to market. While this process if efficient, it usually involves a huge initial cost which means you can only produce things that you know will sell quite well. Using additive manufacturing you can create a complex product (some 3-D printers have no troubles printing internal circuitry or even switching materials while printing) with ease and it is completely economical to produce a very small number of products. This idea has some manufacturers bursting with excitement while it has others running scared. The biggest consequence will be the newfound power placed in average joe’s hands, in other words we are seeing the exact opposite of what happened in the Industrial Revolution when production went from cottage industries to massive factories.
This could soon be a thing of the past
The advent of 3-D printing brings with it an interesting problem, physical product piracy. It is only natural that major companies will begin selling “product plans” for a reduced price instead of manufacturing and shipping products to the consumer, after all this will greatly increase profits. But what is to stop someone from taking the plans or creating a 3-D scan of the product and then releasing them online for free. In fact the ever innovative minds at The Pirate Bay have recently created a category for what they call “physibles” which are objects that can be created on a 3-D printer. This in turn has caused manufacturers to brainstorm ways to mark products as “authentic”, in the same way Digital Rights Management was created to distinguish legally acquired music from pirated music. Even more interesting is that MP3 players were not really popular until the file sharing program Napster made MP3 files widespread and attainable. Many fear that a file sharing network for physibles will be what drives 3-D printers into the mainstream.
With a 3-D printer, this is all you would need
Alas, while I have spent the last 600 words bragging about 3-D printers there still remains many things they cannot do. Practically sized printers remain quite expensive (although not unreasonably so) and it is still difficult to print a device as complex and filled with so many different materials as a running shoe. But this is a rapidly changing device in a rapidly changing world and we are just seeing the beginning. In the next couple decades we will see an effect on society that will be positive for some, and devastating for others. Life in many ways will become easier, cheaper and more customizable, yet undeniably, some jobs will be lost and entire industries will crash. Still, I am excited to see what this new piece of technology will do.
To read more about the economic impacts of additive manufacturing: http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/02/14/adding-our-way-to-abundance/
Wanna get a 3-D printer? Start here: http://www.makergear.com/products/mosaic-3d-printers or here http://desktopfactory.com/
Wanna see a company already making good use of 3-D printers: http://www.shapeways.com/
