While i have thought of 3D printing in the past.
While i have thought of 3D printing in the past.
I can't say that i have every thought about it as a good cyberpunk should have.
With advancements in printer technology. What would it look like in that far distant time of 2020?
It changes a lot of the cyberware procurement issues. And yet raises a goodly number of it's own.
I don't know about you. But 3D printing is going to cost a metric shitload of people a living. Creating Nomads by the bushel. While also making some technology ubiquitous and some goods damn near free.
Huh. The future is a funny place.
I tend to think of 3D printing as revolutionary, but a revolution we already know. And won’t fundamentally change anything.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to predict how society will change, but in broad strokes it’ll give us access to more goods more easily. Things will still cost money, but we’re paying for materials, which means we’re not paying a premium for specific goods.
Depending on where 3D printing technology goes we might be able to print air conditioners, cars, maybe even computers.
That will bring prices down, but probably won’t change much. These are already commodities. You and I would probably still buy a computer that was mass produced in China.
LEGO, action figures, shelving manufacturers and the like will have trouble staying in business. Right now they’re already competing with Chinese alternatives that are 1/5th the price with much larger selections, so it’s already underway. If we lose those industries, it’ll only be because we already have the social benefits. Shelves that fit your kitchen perfectly. LEGO sets of exactly what you want. Action figures of your favourite show without waiting to see if they bother merchandising.
I expect this will look like the current DIY or fan communities. YouTube will tell you how to make shelves for your kitchen. Fans already draw and paint characters and often sell posters and mugs and stuff that might have been merchandised.
People will certainly go out of business, but people will also start doing new jobs. If this technology is broadly available then most people doing these new jobs won’t make much money, but we’ll have a lot of variety and innovation and it will be dirt cheap for the consumer (like DIY tabletop games) - if it’s not broadly available it will be a mix of cheap options combined with an industry (like computer software)
There will be fewer well paying jobs, and those jobs will be (hopefully) higher quality. They will also produce more for society than currently.
What I’m more interested in is recycling the objects. And unsupervised speedy construction.
ReplyDelete3D printing plastic chairs and a table when I want to entertain guests isn’t so different to buying them from IKEA.
Printing them, having the meal, then throwing them in the recycler and pulling out the war game terrain table, and when they leave recycling that and putting out a swing set for the kids.
... that sort of fast printing and recycling would let us reuse the same spaces in different ways without needing a lot of storage space.
If we could also print hammers and screwdrivers and stuff, we might be able to store very few belongings, and only keep things we’re actively using. Allowing better apartment or city living, and less focus on collecting belongings.
If the recycling is efficient enough it might be very environmentally friendly, because when we want new stuff we’re reusing the same resources from our old stuff.
If we’d printed things like air conditioners and fridges it would also mean we could recycle and replace as soon as someone releases a more energy efficient design.