The end of the current production-manufacturing economic model may be on the horizon. But what if nothing’s ready to replace it?
Clay Shirky recently described revolutions as situations in which “...the old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place.” He was talking about newspapers, but the insight can apply much more broadly. Advertising, for example, seems to be going through its own revolution, with existing models falling to tatters without a clear successor waiting in the wings. Education is another example, and some would argue that a similar process is underway in the realm of international power and politics.
Shirky’s observation came to mind while watching a recording of Bruce Sterling’s closing keynote for the ReBoot conference last month. Late in the talk, Bruce tosses out this line: “Objects are print-outs.” He goes on to discuss how to rethink one’s relationship with material possessions in an increasingly precarious world, but the “objects are print-outs” line stuck with me. It encapsulates not just an attitude towards material possessions, but—in one pithy phrase—one possible shape of the next economy.
Take a design for a simple product—an engine part, for example, or a piece of silverware, and feed it into a computer. Press “print.” Out pops (for a sufficiently wide definition of “pops”) a physical duplicate, made out of materials plastic, ceramic, metal—even sugar. Press “print” again, and out comes another copy—or feed in a new design, for the next necessary object.
It may sound like a scene from a low-rent version of Star Trek, but it’s real, and it’s happening with increasing frequency. This process goes by a few names, but it’s most commonly known as “3D Printing” (the older name, “rapid prototyping,” no longer captures the range of uses, while the other alternative name, “fabbing,” is a little too cyberpunk for the moment). While the process has been around since the mid-1980s, the cost of 3D printers has been dropping quickly, and now range to well under $10,000. If that still sounds like a lot of money, you’re right—but don’t forget, it was when laser printers dropped to this price range in the mid-1980s that the desktop publishing revolution kicked off.
Right now, most 3D printing is limited to single-material objects (as designer Sven Johnson noted on Twitter, we’re now starting to see two-material 3D printers). Most systems use (often proprietary) plastics, but a few use metal “toner.” The latter is turned solid by a variety of high-tech means, from sintering with lasers (for simple objects) to using high-energy electron beams to melt the metal into dense, high-strength parts.
On the near horizon, however, are systems that would allow for multiple material inputs, and those that allow the use of electroactive and electronic polymers. Although plastic electronics fall way behind traditional silicon processors when it comes to speed, they’re moving into the “just good enough” category, raising the tantalizing possibility of being able to print out basic electronic products—sensors, RFID-type tags, even simple communication devices—by the middle of the next decade. And as the 3D printing systems become more sophisticated, moving closer to the realm of molecular-scale manufacturing, the potential for even more complex and powerful products available at the touch of the “print” button becomes ever greater.
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