Printing the Future

Sick of running to the store for spare parts during DIY crafts hour? Sad because your favorite shirt has been sitting in the closet for months without a complete set of matching buttons? Wish you could mount an exact replica of Mozart’s bust on your mantle, but lack the time or the technical ability to do him justice?

Well you can, with a simple SolidWorks CAD file and a 3D printer – which has actually been a thing for a while now. But thanks to recent price cuts and media attention, you can do it FROM YOUR OWN HOME with YOUR VERY OWN PRINTER, for about $400 and a computer modeling class or two. The revolution is coming, and from the looks of it, nothing will ever be the same.

The possibilities of this newly accessible technology are said to reach every aspect of our interaction with consumables, from the production of fully functional firearms to electronic prosthetic ones. We’re talking recyclable cars with interchangeable parts you can fabricate and install without the folks at the auto shop. We’re talking fully customizable accessories and jewelry, minus the overpriced market retail. We’re talking a full-scale replica of Michelangelo’s David in my backyard.

Sounds great, right? Everything will be so much easier and cheaper, and independently operated. We won’t have to count on Wal-Mart for discount appliances and utensils. Say goodbye to the days of making multiple trips to Home Depot while remodeling the kitchen. No more lines and entry fees at the museum for our daily dose of culture; every sculptural masterpiece ever made will be right there at our fingertips. We’ll never have to leave the house again!

But wait… I feel a drawback coming on.

Like the loss of hundreds of thousands of retail and assembly jobs, or even less human contact than we already experience with social media and online shopping, or the lack of sufficient regulation, leading to even more stuff being made out of even more questionable materials. Because the thing we need most is more stuff.

Maybe this isn’t all good – just like, oh I don’t know, every other revolutionary technological discovery we’ve ever come up with? I suppose it’s a given that someone(s), somewhere(s) will abuse this exciting development to the extent of their malevolent imaginations. On one hand, it would open up all kinds of creative opportunity, increase the amount of freedom and personal connection we have with our objects, and give us a much-needed excuse to begin the departure from commercial industrialization. But for every positive aspect, there seems to be at least one less-than-positive catch-22. At least we can safely say the day is still a ways off that every home will have its own 3D printer, and we can hope to figure out how to prevent the most disastrous of possibilities before they happen – because we’ve been so good at the whole “foresight” thing in the past. Regardless of the potential good and evil that could come from this soon-to-be revolution, one quote keeps ringing in my ears: “With great power comes great responsibility.” I wonder if we’ll be able to make Uncle Ben proud, when the time comes to put our newly developed “superpowers” to use.