Friday, September 15, 2017

Nothing Says The Future Quite Like 3D Printer Filament

By Dorothy Miller


It is doubtful that anyone could have imagined the technological breakthrough of the three-dimensional printers. Although it is still little more than a toy to most people, this toy is better than Lego blocks, erector sets, fashion plates, and real working Hot Wheels combined. With a little 3D printer filament, the boundaries of potential creation do not exist.

In the beginning few really took notice as this new tech emerged. The first people showing an interest were hobbyists or technology buffs who always seek to get whatever is new for collecting, if for no other reason. In this humble start, even those who created it did not know the unexpected directions it would take, or that it could open amazing doors, but the double side of this knife is all too obvious as well.

It was the Hobby Lobby crowd that first gave us a peek into this new potential. Holiday ornaments began to appear on social media pages, then there were solar powered self lighting versions, and finally there were ornaments that functioned like tiny machines, jingling with the power of motion. These first shiny objects of idle entertainment sparked the first embers of recognized potential.

Parents were probably the first and most unexpected wave of buyers for this new tech. Specifically, parents of children with missing limbs. These parents learned to use this tool to make moving hands, arms, and fingers for their children so that they could grasp their world with something more elegant than a claw.

With the expansion of the materials available for these printers, so do the ideas and objects that human beings create. Some first prototypes do not live up to their originals, such as the first musical instruments created. However, electric instruments created in this way have a most excellent sound, and some of them are unlike anything anyone has ever dreamed could be.

With music and robotics covered, naturally the fashion industry would be the next market attempting to push this new toy to the limits of potential. Creative minds who love clothes do not always love to sew. Truly creative minds abhor limitations, and with these printers, there is neither sewing nor limits to what a fashion designer can manifest.

Erupting from this flood of creative flow came yet another unexpected tsunami of potential. The implications of using this type of manufacturing in order to create body parts from stem cells carries a heavy implication that our bodies could one day be self-maintained biological machines, and we can be our own mechanics. This potential for all of us to live longer and better without doctors is heavy.

Manufacturing, robotics, fashion, and medicine all stand to be radically altered a machine that once worked as no more than a scribe. In less than a century, realms of possibility more vast than all potential our ancestors ever could dream for us has suddenly been opened by one of the most simple machines they created. Now we must rethink everything.




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