grainfedprairieboy grainfedprairieboy:
3D printing will change everything and the manufacturing/supply/retail chain as we know it will soon cease to exist. Think about it, a guy in his basement will design a toaster or blender or TV or phone and you will simply download it and print off the design. Everyone from Black Decker to Walmart to Cosco Shipping and even Amazon will be impacted.
True. People will lose jobs in the old industries and move on to the new industries. Stagecoach lines are a thing of the past, so are sailing ships for commercial transport. Yet we're still here.
Oh, and what happens when you can use a 3D printer to make another 3D printer?
grainfedprairieboy grainfedprairieboy:
My concerns about 3D printing are threefold:
1. How does the world economy change when manufacturers, retailers and all the industries that support them no longer exist?
How did it change when we moved from steam to internal combustion?
grainfedprairieboy grainfedprairieboy:
2. How on earth will the environment be able to handle the explosion in plastic crap people will print off? For example, making a 3d plastic model of the monster your 5 year old just drew. We are already awash in plastic to the point it is in the blood of every human on the planet and choking the oceans.
Recycling. Cheap plastic crap will be recycled into cheap plastic crap. Oddly enough, 3D printing makes recycling a far more viable and profitable business.
grainfedprairieboy grainfedprairieboy:
3. Any tech savvy kid can print off not just guns but things like claymore mines and bombs and when organic printing is perfected, instead of hamburgers and fries kids might print off viruses or bacteria.
Terrorism is still terrorism. Anyone so inclined is going to do it whether or not they have a 3D printer.