Sunday, 17 September 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.

Those first brave souls to pry open their crate and attempt to comprehend the owners manual barely knew what they held in their hands. They learned how to be inventors for the invention, while the world slept. It was not until average people began to understand exactly how this technology could impact their lives, improve it, before the world began to take notice.

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.

As the potential for micro machines became very clear, the leap that erupted from this was something no one could have guessed. As we all know, there is always a percentage of children born with a limb missing. Most often this limb is the hand, and the parents of these children rose out of obscurity when they created moving replacement hands, arms, and feet for their children; printing a series to grow as their child would grow.

As the materials available for these printers have expanded, so have the objects people have learned to fashion from them. Some of the most unique musical instruments ever seen are now just a print away. Many such tools of sound have been based on those we are already familiar with, but some are completely unique creations and there remains only one like them.

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.

Now we KNOW we will be pushed to drink because three-dimensional printing has just replaced every warehouse worker, seamstress, artisan instrument creator, and the entire medical community. It would seem that this is telling us it is time for the human race to rethink everything we ever imagined our future could be. There are no limits, but we are going to have to find some new ways to keep ourselves occupied.




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