3D Printing and the Replicator Economy

An anonymous reader writes "'Tea. Earl Grey. Hot,' is a command familiar to every Trek fan as representing everyday use of replicator technology. While its use on the show is simply sci-fi wizardry, the beginnings of that technology is now making it into homes, and could spark an industrial revolution. 'New 3D printing and other so-called additive manufacturing technologies are based on methods that industries developed over the past quarter century to rapidly create prototypes of mechanical parts for testing. But as these methods become increasingly sophisticated, demand is rising to use them to manufacture finished products, not only in factories but also at a boutique, one-off level for individuals. ... Already, 3D printing has been used to make tools and artworks, custom-fitted prosthetics for amputees, components for aviation and medical instruments, solid medical models of bones and organs based on MRI scans, paper-based photovoltaic cells, and the body panels for a lightweight hybrid automobile.'"

Comments

stock up on bullets EMP don't work on them

[Joe_Dragon]

stock up on bullets EMP's and lasers don't work on them

Replicator economy or peak employment?

[Compaqt]

On the one hand you have the possible utopia of unlimited "free" stuff.

And on the other, the distopia of companies locking this technology up, and firing (almost all) the workers.

It would be great to believe the former. But a whole lot of people seem to be afraid of the latter.

Is there any unwavering indicator one way or the other?

Re:Replicator economy or peak employment?

[ColdWetDog]

What's free about this stuff? Printers aren't free and the more complex ones that actually do something are likely to be even more expensive. The feedstocks aren't going to be free.

Unless you can conceive of an economy run on simple plastic objects with no moving parts, I don't see anything today that resembles the hallucination that is Star Trek. Or even The Diamond Age.

Re:Replicator economy or peak employment?

[ColdWetDog]

Oh, and before anyone else feels the need to express the obvious, dildos will not support an entire economy. Sorry.

Re:Replicator economy or peak employment?

[vlm]

Unless you can conceive of an economy run on simple plastic objects with no moving parts,

My main interest is making patterns to be sandcast in aluminum. It turns out that patternmaking is remarkably hard and painful when a pattern breaks or is lost. Of course when another is available by "press go" then its not so bad.

Also note that "simple plastic objects with no moving parts" represents probably 50% by weight or volume of the stuff at walmart and target. Entire aisles of laundry baskets, storage baskets, kitchen gadgets, housewares gadgets, all obsolete.

Re:Replicator economy or peak employment?

[Bios_Hakr]

It may not happen soon enough in the scale that will impact the majority of the people, but it is already happening.

Here is a link to a guy who took the plans for an old Guillows free-flight plane and converted it to a 3d printable version:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/thumbgallery.php?t=1455808&do=threadgallery

Here is a link to a company that makes a "printer" for foam for simple models and prototyping:

http://www.phlatboyz.com/Phlatprinter-3-Kit_p_9.html

I think we are fast approaching the time when the printers will be able to print another copy of itself.

Sure, you'll need the raw material, but we are at the point now where you could "print" an Ikea furniture piece.

Re:Replicator economy or peak employment?

[Genda]

Are you kidding? Do you have any clue as to the actual number of people in America today who are out of work? Add to that the virtual collapse of available jobs in government and public services, well you get the picture.

Tell me that every advance in productivity, every application of robotics, every technological enhancement that makes it possible for business to make more, better, cheaper products hasn't resulted in higher wages for the Board of Directors and lower wages for the common worker in real currency. We now live in a global economy that sees human labor as a commodity, and all of it is to serve a self obsessed, self indulgent, corporate elite.

You want unwavering indicators, here are a few that might help you hone in on an answer:

• The average income for a middle class American in adjust dollars over the last 50 years
• The ratio of income between the average worker and CEO of all American business over the last 50 years
• The number of patents issued to corporations per year over the last 50 years
• The number of patent attorneys employed per year over the last 50 years
• The number of exceptions, exclusions and abridgments to your civil rights enacted per year over last 50 years
• The number of people in prison per year over the last 50 years
• The number of people on food stamps, food lines, homeless and living with friends or relatives over the last 50 years

What you will see is a mass migration into poverty and population control. We are being herded into oblivion. You honestly tell me if you had a billion dollars how eager you would be to help the masses vs feathering your own nest. We've built a society of bottomless appetites, with fewer and fewer souls who can feed that hunger. Can you see any way for the common man to make out in such a world?

Let me put it another way. The greater people are responsible for the future. Until the masses hold wisdom more highly than gratification, dignity above notoriety, justice above animal revenge and compassion above dominion, we can pretty much predict how it will all turn out. We have done a spectacular job of teaching our children to be fat, stupid and ready to dance to any tune their corporate masters may choose to play. What indicators are you looking at?

You know what it would produce

[DanTheStone]

And the 3D printer would spit out a liquid almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

Won't have it all

[plover]

3D printing addresses one component of "stuff". Electronics, servomotors, glass, ceramics, metals, all those are components that may need to play a functional part in anything much more complicated than a Lego brick.

Don't get me wrong: I've been in complete awe of 3D printing since I saw one in 1991 at IMTS in Chicago. They used lasers to spot-harden UV-curable resin, then lowered the support table by 0.1 mm and drew in the next layer. After it was complete, they drained the resin and rinsed the part off. It was absolutely amazing, and that was 20 years ago. Modern additive machines are even cooler, with the ability to combine different materials and colors, making a finished part with a much cleaner process.

But they still have to affordably produce a sufficient number of end-user-usable things before we'll see them in the average home. Need a 100 cc measuring cup because all you have are imperial measuring cups? No problem! Need a TV remote control, or a toaster? Sorry.

copyright stuff

[craftycoder]

I think people who say 3D printers are "not going anywhere thanks to IP law" are missing the point. 3D printers are for people who want to design and build their own things and less about trying to save money by building your own version of a absurdly cheap Walmart available gizmo. A 3D printer will never compete with Lego as an affordable way to replace Lego's manufacturing capabilities. I have no doubt that these machines will be co-opted for nefarious goals on occasion, but mostly they will be cost additive rather than cost saving or even cost neutral compared to the mark up on a manufactured items.

I have a couple of things I've been wanting to build for quite sometime but I don't have rapid prototyping capabilities at home. Once I get to my local hackerspace and print out a a few prototypes and get the design worked out I'll be having them machined out of aluminum and sell the products. More money will move through the economy and maybe even a few jobs will be created. These may even bring about a renaissance in the small business. Here's to hoping anyway.

Not cost effective

[i_b_don]

Look, 3D printers are cool. They're awesome for anyone who ever wanted to build something quickly. I use one at work regularity so I fully appreciate the technology..... BUT they are just not cost effective compared to mass manufacturing processes.

There are often many different ways to build something in manufacturing. You can machine something, mold something, 3D print something, etc, and many different flavors of each type of manufacturing. It will be 50 years before 3D printing a lego is anywhere near as cheap as just molding a lego if ever. This is the way of things. 3D printing is awesome for doing small custom things and giving you the ability to do stuff that you either couldn't do before or that would take you a lot of time and skill to develop on your own.

Let me give you a simple example. I use our 3D printer to manufacture small plastic pieces used in semi-conductors assemblies. This is not my primary job, just a skill that allows me to get my real job done faster. The size of the pieces I print out are around 2" x 2" x 0.5" or smaller. If I try to mass manufacturer them then I can *maybe* do them around 1 per hour. (I have to fill the platter with say 20 of them and it'll take me 20 hours to complete). This will get me accuracy that is not quite as good as molding or machining, but it's within an order of magnitude.

So, it's not better, not cheaper, and not faster (on a per piece basis). What it gets me is small-quantity-cheap. Custom stuff, prototypes, one-offs, etc. That's it's advantage. AND it can also do some stuff traditional machining/molding just can't do ever. These are this technology's sweet spots. Even if you give the technology 10 or 20 years, you're not going to compete with molding. It's just not cost effective.

Yes 3D printing is awesome. Yes it gives us the ability to prototype stuff in 6 hours or overnight. Yes it's cheap for stuff like that, but it's just not the be-all and do-all that the "tea, Earl gray" line would have you expect. It will be rare that you will save money by printing out your own stuff even ignoring the cost of the machine itself.

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Stupid Computer

[Toe, The]

WhyTF does Picard have to say "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot" every freakin' time?

A computer that is sophisticated enough to fly a warpdrive spaceship and replicate food should be able to understand user preferences, no?

Shouldn't he just say, "cuppa tea" or just, "the usual" and get a nice hot cup of Earl Grey?

Only explanation is it's MS Enterprise 5.7 and user preferences are the great new groundbreaking feature in MS Enterprise 6... expected any decade now.