Singularity Alert: 3D Printing

[Siege]

Amazing!!!!!

I only quoted the beginning.

Full article: http://www.3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing


What is 3D Printing? An Overview.


You've heard of 3D printing from newscasters and journalists, astonished at what they've witnessed. A machine reminiscent of the Star Trek Replicator, something magical that can create objects out of thin air. It can "print" in plastic, metal, nylon, and over a hundred other materials. It can be used for making nonsensical little models like the over-printed Yoda, yet it can also print manufacturing prototypes, end user products, quasi-legal guns, aircraft engine parts and even human organs using a person's own cells.

Fantastical? Yes. True? Yes. Here now? Yes.

We live in an age that is witness to what many are calling the Third Industrial Revolution. 3D printing, more professionally called additive manufacturing, moves us away from the Henry Ford era mass production line, and will bring us to a new reality of customizable, one-off production.

Need a part for your washing machine? As it is now, you'd order from your repairman who gets it from a distributor, who got it shipped from China, where they mass-produced thousands of them at once, probably injection-molded from a very expensive mold. In the future, the beginning of which is already here now, you will simply 3D print the part right in your home, from a CAD file you downloaded. If you don't have the right printer, just print it at your local fab (think Kinkos).

3D printers use a variety of very different types of additive manufacturing technologies, but they all share one core thing in common: they create a three dimensional object by building it layer by successive layer, until the entire object is complete. It's much like printing in two dimensions on a sheet of paper, but with an added third dimension: UP. The Z-axis.

Each of these printed layers is a thinly-sliced, horizontal cross-section of the eventual object. Imagine a multi-layer cake, with the baker laying down each layer one at a time until the entire cake is formed. 3D printing is somewhat similar, but just a bit more precise than 3D baking.

Stick with us and we'll go through the various types of additive manufacturing. From FDM printing, where a material is melted and extruded in layers, one upon the other, to SLS printing, where a bed of powder material such as nylon or titanium is "sintered" (hardened) layer upon thin layer within it until a model is pulled out of it. It's a fascinating and quickly advancing world that will change our lives as we know it.

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3D Printing is a Game Changer

Instantly printing parts and entire products, anywhere in the world, is a game changer. But it doesn't stop there. 3D printing will affect almost every aspect of industry and our personal lives.

Medicine will forever be changed as new bioprinters actually print human tissue for both pharmaceutical testing and eventually entire organs and bones.

Architecture and construction are changing as well. Now, 3D-printed models of complex architectural drawings are created quickly and inexpensively, rather than the expensive and time-consuming process of handcrafting models out of cardboard. And experimental, massive 3D printers are printing concrete structures, with the goal of someday creating entire buildings with a 3D printer.

Art is already forever changed. Digital artists are creating magnificent pieces that seem almost impossible to have been made by traditional methods. From sculptures to light fixtures, beautiful objects no longer need to be handcrafted, just designed on a computer.

And there are developments where you least expect them: for example, archeologists can 3D scan priceless and delicate artifacts, and then print copies of them so they can handle them without fear of breakage. Replicas can be easily made and distributed to other research facilities or museums. It has been used to create a full-size reproduction of King Tutankhamun's mummy and to repair Rodin's sculpture, The Thinker.

The Future of 3D Printing

This is a disruptive technology of mammoth proportions, with effects on energy use, waste, customization, product availability, art, medicine, construction, the sciences, and of course manufacturing. It will change the world as we know it. Before you know it.

By Mark Fleming

http://www.3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing

[Siege]

Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2013




You can see where 3D Printing is.
A long way to mature.

[garbon]

[MadImmortalMan]

You worry me with all these gifs garbo.

[jimmy olsen]

Everybody already knows about 3-D printing. If you're going to post about, post about recent developments or breakthroughs rather than the technology in general.

[Iormlund]

The problem with the Singularity thing is it depends on humans making use of brain-enhancing technology. Can you really imagine loading a typical software product into your neurons without being freaked the Hell out by that concept? Bugs, patches, DLCs, vulnerabilities, backdoors ... Fuck that.

[Razgovory]

Why is Siege so big on the "Rapture of Nerds"?

[Josquius]

3D printing? No way! That doesn't exist. Its impossible.
BTW. Is anyone else exicted about  Abrams' Star Trek reboot? Its due out next year! It looks fun, though Sylar as Spock? hmm.....

[Brazen]

Welcome to technology patented in 1984 and widely used on an industrial scale!

[Eddie Teach]

Why is Siege so big on the "Rapture of Nerds"?

He's tired of being married.

[Siege]

3D printing? No way! That doesn't exist. Its impossible.
BTW. Is anyone else exicted about  Abrams' Star Trek reboot? Its due out next year! It looks fun, though Sylar as Spock? hmm.....

What? Another reboot?
What a retard.

[Siege]

Why is Siege so big on the "Rapture of Nerds"?

Ah, another milestone of technological development, perhaps?
Like the renaissance or the industrial revolution?
Another theory that supports my theory about alien life?
Given enough time, every planet that can hold life will hold life, every life holding planet will hold intelligent life, every intelligent life will become a technological civilization, every technological civilization will reach the singularity and become undetectable  to less developed civilizations, therefore answering Fermis Paradox.

[Ed Anger]

Everybody already knows about 3-D printing. If you're going to post about, post about recent developments or breakthroughs rather than the technology in general.

The news Fuhrer issues his orders!

[KRonn]

The other stuff is amazing too but one of the bigger ones that stands out to me is that they're now talking about creating human organs with this tech.

[garbon]

You worry me with all these gifs garbo.