Brittney Mitchell
CAS 283, Section 004
November 11, 2014
3D Printing
I never really thought about 3D printing until our lab
session. With 3D printing beginning to surface within the next ten years, it is
going to be really interesting to see how it all unfolds. Just like all new
technological advances there will always be negatives and positives to them. I
feel that once 3D printers are in mass production and in the hands of everyone,
the society we live will never be same. Money will no longer be a source of
power because it could be easier produce. The idea of social and economic classes
will eventually disappear. On the other hand, the amount of harm that a product
of this caliber can do to our society is seriously scary. It begins messing up
our government system of what is legally wrong and right.
One of the biggest controversies when it comes to 3D
printing is the printing of guns and other weapons. The video that we watched
in lab was just mind blowing. We have people out there already trying to print
parts of guns and probably other dangerous weapons. Once these 3D printers are
in mass production and easily accessible to the general public, how are we
going to stop these weapons from getting into the wrong hands? The government
needs to start thinking now how to implement some type of law or regulation
that allows control of the production of certain items. If they wait until
something serious to happen, it will obviously be way too late. The guy in the
video has already found loop holes in the law, so the next person can do the same
thing but in a more tragic way rather than just trying to prove a point.
CNN has this interesting interactive module that allows
you to explore many aspects of 3D printing. They talk how it works, braving the
new world, home from home, shifting in the industry and just general things to
think about. One thing that intrigued me there is a group of architects in
Amsterdam that have created a 3D printer so big, that can print pieces of a
canal house. The printer is called the “KamerMaker.” It “prints large Lego-like
structures made from recycled plastic, which will form the building blocks of a
full-size house”. Clearly, a printer of this magnitude would cost a lot, but I would
be so much cheaper than paying someone to build you a house from scratch. One of
the potential downside to something like this would be how structurally sound
would the house actually be and can it withstand serve storms.
Another interesting statement was, “in the sign of things
to come, engineers from Airbus have announced that by 2050 they hope to print
the entire aircraft from the ground up.” By the time we get older, I feel that
everything we own within our homes, transportation, and everything else will be
created by a 3D printer. Once this
happens the world as we know it will NEVER be the same.
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