I occasionally engage ‘people’ in discussion about stuff they don’t know. It is something I should not do since it is something that makes neither them nor me happy. The other day I described the idea of ‘3D Printing’ to a person and why it has relevance to their business. Instead of keen interest I get dismissal, mockery, hostility, glassy eyed stares, or star trek references. People arr ‘not buying it’. People do not believe that something like 3D printing ‘will every have relevance in their lives’ and it will always be something ‘done in some university far far away’.
I explained the implications of 3D printing in a Games Workshop store. Same glassy-eyed stares. Dismissal. Same “Nah, I am not expecting this for decades“. When I told them – guys you will have one in the back of your store in five years or so, they thought I was some crazy old cow talking out of her pie hole. “What have you been smoking”, etc.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAt2xD1L8dw&fs=1&hl=en_US]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9VOwqtOglg&fs=1&hl=en_US]
They are falling prey to the “linear development fallacy” Khannea.
I’ve been discussing 3d printers in my tech development thread on Imminst
http://www.imminst.org/forum/topic/35387-vals-nanotech-discussion-thread/page__pid__429865__st__280#entry429865
I’ve even argued with Drexler over how 3d printing, with it’s ability to act as a universal manufacturing device, will supplant high speed single purpose manufacturing devices, as product lifetimes shrink below production line retooling times.
And yet, we now have roll to roll printing of OLED displays nearing production status. Dow just recently printed a 50 inch Oled in less than 2 minutes. The military is investing in “Portable fab shops” that use high speed milling and 3d laser sintering to manufacture parts in the field rather than waiting weeks for replacement parts.
Also, the economy is going to force manufacturers to find ways to reduce costs. How will they do this? By switching to 3d printers for manufacturing, reducing costs by eliminating “assembly” steps and assembly workers.
In the medical field, we have 3d cell printers, making small tissues, but working towards making whole internal organs. Add in the fact that we’ve already made huge strides towards being able to mass produce stem cells, by the end of the decade, we might not only be making organs, but “improvements” like pointed ears and tails, not to mention full conversions (including internal organs) between male and female.
But a printer that can print a heart can also print a steak, or a steak tomato. So we could have “3d Printers” that print food as easily as they can make other products.
We are closer to a Star Trek “Replicator” than many people can wrap their heads around. The next time they try to tell you “they can’t imagine that”, tell them that it’s a failure of their mind, not a failure of reality.