Opening the Pandora’s Box that is 3D Printing
Its great to see that the world is catching on the the potential of 3D printing. It is a transformational technology that will speed up innovation & democratize technology. It has the potential to make almost every single product in our world better either by speeding up product & development or by producing things that fit tasks better. You will be able to make what you want exactly as you want it to be. We will be able to personalize, customize and design our world. Implants, medical instruments and replacement parts of our bodies will be created.
Products will be improved literally, continually, globally by loose networks of people collaborating at speeds we can scarcely imagine. By combining the connectivity of the internet and its creative force with decentralized production the variety of things optimized for a certain task will explode. Every niche will be filled, layer by layer. Not only will innovation be democratized it will be near instantaneous. As soon as an idea has been made we will be able to produce this idea. As soon as it exists other people will be able to improve upon it. This is a wonderful thing. In the future everything could be invented and made by anyone. And herein lies the trade-off.
Because the democratization of innovation and production will happen for everyone that is in a position to use 3D printing, irrespective of intent. Your Mother’s day present will be better but so will the capabilities of Columbine school shooters.
In a 3D printed world there will be no way to stop anyone from making anything. There will be no way to un-invent an idea. Export controls, legislation, software tools, nothing will work. There will be no meaningful way to stop the spread of any technology that can be 3D printed. There will be no way to stop anything that can be made from being made.
A 3D printer doesn’t discriminate, it just turns any design into any object.
Years ago Materialise CEO Fried Vancrean prohibited Materialise from making any weapons, weapons components and weapons systems. Given our location in the heart of Europe and close to much weapons system development this has probably cost the company considerably in terms of revenue. But, Fried was prescient in this respect. But, whereas we can choose to not make things as we did with the ATM skimmer and we continually do with weapons development it will not be possible to restrict what is made on any and all 3D printers. And even for a service it will be hard to distinguish a weapon of some kind that has been artfully disguised or split up and ordered from several services.
An AR-15 Magazine follower by Crank.
Shape charges, handguns & munitions, this is also technology that will be democratized. And these aren’t pie in the sky examples, this is what’s on my mind currently possible with the technology. And there is nothing what so ever that we can do to stop it. I know its not an uplifting message but we will simply have to cope with an increase in the technological proficiency of those that want to do harm. The trade-off being that nearly every single product in the world will be better.
