So a lot of scientists are saying that the 3-D printer could be the big one, the game-changer, the thing that after which nothing is the same again.
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital model. 3D printing is achieved using additive processes, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printing is considered distinct from traditional machining techniques (subtractive processes) which mostly rely on the removal of material by drilling, cutting etc.
This technology is already available and can be used to make an unbelievable amount of things. It is also becoming cheaper all the time and the designs it can make are more and more advanced.
It’s already happening.
In the future this technology could be used to make machine parts (it already is to some extent), to make machines, houses, medicines, even replacement body parts, basically anything you can think of to make life better…and it could be cheap too.
So what was one of the first things an American company came up with for this astounding technology.
Yes, you guessed right…
Plans to print a gun halted as 3D printer is seized
A US project to create a printable gun has been derailed after the company supplying the 3D printer withdrew it.
In a letter published on the Wiki Weapon website, Stratasys said that it did not allow its printers “to be used for illegal purposes”
Defense Distributed, the group behind the project, had planned to share 3D weapon blueprints online.
“This project could very well change the way we think about gun control and consumption,” it said on its site.
“How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the internet?”
It’s predictably depressing.