Thursday, September 21, 2017

3D Printer Filament May Redefine Humanities Future

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.

Some of the first things the world saw coming from these machines were Holiday ornaments. Some of them had lights that charged up from sunlight during the day, and many of them had minute, mechanical, moving parts that chimed as they wound their way through a universe of perpetual motion. Those ornaments were very likely the fire lit in many minds, and the technology took an amazing leap none could have foreseen.

There are many children who, for whatever reasons, are born with hands, arms, feet, limbs missing. When a parent of such a child saw these tiny machines hanging from artificial trees, ornamenting the Holidays of strangers, an idea suddenly emerged into concept. A parent made a child an artificial hand that was radically Transformers in appearance, and could be redesigned over and over as they grew.

As with any new toys that yuppies take a shine to, the variations on materials will expand as long as their credit limits last. One of the next items the world came to behold, printed right in some gamer geeks living room, were musical instruments. Many of them are basic electric and bass guitars, but there are some unique one-of-a-kind gems out there which even their creator was hard-pressed to find a name for.

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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