Lisa Harouni: Primer on 3D printing. Must See Ted Talk

[Lunican]

Sure. I bet you a dollar that in 2018, less than 5% of the U.S. population will own a 3D printer.

I will bet you that more than 5% of american households will be purchasing and or using products that have been made on a 3d printer by 2018.

Wow. That sounds like a wild success that will alter global trade and the way we live!

3d printers don't mean anything. The examples of progress you cited were all information based that moved to a better medium.

[buckethead]

I can see this applied to buildings. An abundant supply of raw materials being the larger hurdle.

With 3D printing, materials could be oriented to maximize strength while minimizing the volume of materials needed, much in the same way modern engineering has altered building techniques and materials.

I can envision structures made of sand/silica, wood/resin, portland cement, or a number of other possibilities. Maybe any raw material could become useful.

In my imagination it looks like large robotic insects spitting a building together. Think 'mud dobber' without the wings. (Is that the scientific name for those wasp things?

I think I agree with Stephen here. The change will be beyond profound. It will be radical. In fact, so radical that a new social structure will emerge. Two possibilities: More socialistic distribution of resources, or mass termination of large swaths of population by various means. Not entirely intentional, but warring for resources is as old as mankind. (I suppose a separate agrarian society could come into being but owning land would seem to be a prerequisite)

When labor becomes all but obsolete, owning the means of production or natural resources becomes the only means of increasing wealth, something has got to give.

[peestandingup]

I'm with you guys. Like most of you, I've been saying this same thing for years. Not because I'm some magical wizard who can see the future, but because its just the way it is. There's no conspiracy, its all technology driven. Anyone who doesn't see it is either blind, too tied up in their own little bubbles of life & can't think longterm, or simply doesn't want to face the reality of the situation.

They'll have to be some kind of new social movement to come out of this, because the traditional means of how capitalism works won't apply. I envision many will suffer (and possible die) before this happens though. The top 1% has such an influence & stranglehold on keeping the old methods alive that it won't be pretty. The gap between them & us is the biggest it's ever been in history & its only widening, with the middle class being hollowed out. My fear is that this will cause a period of great mass social unrest, possible some kind of war since again, the top has such an interest in siphoning off of us all to keep the flow going. Power control basically.

But thats getting too far into trying to predict how this will play out. All I know is that the old ways simply will fail as retail ultimately dies, 3D printing & internet commerce becomes the norm, factories become almost 100% automated, etc. Its happening now & is accelerating at high speeds. Technology is destroying jobs faster than it is creating them & there will not be another great "industrial revolution" to sustain us all. America (and pretty much everywhere) was built on that method, now its history & never coming back. Thats why our economy has been debt based horse shit for the last few decades. But that eventually goes away too because none of it is real.

So we're gonna have to emerge from this & try to rethink the way our society works, or look like Mad Max. The haves vs the have-nots. And there will be plenty of have-nots, more than you can shake a stick at. And they're going to be pissed. And not to turn this into a whole debate, but this is one of the reasons I don't budge too much on the whole gun control issue. Because the future doesn't look pleasant & you may ultimately regret giving up any of those rights.

[Bill Hoff]

Fyi -http://www.beonespark.com/discover/creator_projects/775

A friend of mine has a 3D printing project in One Spark. Check it out.

[louie]

That was really cool, in fact all the outcomes from 3D printing has enormous results.  I don't think if http://www.digiteksf.com/ if already acquired the idea.