(Reprinted from the Progressive Press article)
3-D printing combined with its increasing
affordability could be an important element in accelerating the world
away from the Post-Industrial to the Information Age.
3-D printing is the process of producing a physical
object from a digital blue print or a scanned object. It is an additive
process, not a subtractive process, as used in the machine tooling for a
metal or plastic object. It relies on a mold that is inserted with a
material (plastic, iron, copper etc.) to make a finished product.
Using a digital schematic, the 3-D printer builds a
series of layers using material such as: plastic, glass, metal,
ceramics or even cells to produce a single seamless product. One could
think of this as similar to making a cake by putting down the different
layers. This one machine might revolutionize manufacturing, the global
economy and cities (Blua, 2013).
The cost may vary from as low as $1,000 to as high
as $600,000 which is affordable to many businesses. What this realizes
is that the companies and individuals can produce many parts with just a
digital blueprint or scanned object, a 3-D machine and the appropriate
material such as plastic, ceramics, steel and even cells. Produced
objects could be as simple as making plastic figurines or mugs to even
automobiles, houses or maybe a liver.
This sounds like the ‘replicator in Star Trek, doesn’t it?’ but it is not at this stage yet. It is not a Buck Rogers fantasy as presented in such magazines as Popular Science.
3-D printers are being manufactured and there are companies making
objects with it. Surprisingly, 3-D printing was invented in the 1983 by
Chuck Hall, but at this time, it was only in the experimental stage and
CAD was in its infancy (Ziamou, 2013).
The first automobile to be made by a 3-D printer is now underway. This is being undertaken by RedEye.
The process takes about 2,500 hours to make one car. The labor costs
are limited to a few people. The cost for the prototype was $50,000.
They can also make parts that are no longer available for vintage or
older cars. There are claims that this new car because of its weight
will travel from San Francisco to New York on 10 gallons of pure ethanol
(George, 2013).
Based on geographic data or Computer Aided Design
(CAD) data, 3 D printers can also create 3D models of entire cities or
specific sites in the present or future, assisting city
management/planning and improving public participation (Jaffee, 2013).
There are several trials underway to make houses
from 3 D printers. Part of the house can be printed off-site in about a
week and then assembled in one day. Various materials such as plastic
bottles or even starch can be used to build the components of a house.
(Dorrier, 2013).
The use of recycled materials and labor reduction
costs could significantly reduce the price of housing. Also, it saves
energy and wisely uses natural resources.
As illustrated in the above examples, the pace that
3 D printing is developing is phenomenal. The proliferation of 3 D
printing as a major element of the manufacturing of all goods may not be
a twenty or thirty year horizon, but ten years or less.
3-D printing itself will not bring about a new
industrial revolution, but it will be one more block in the accelerating
Information Age revolution; combined with a tremendously faster
Internet which will fully realize the potential of cloud computing, and
intelligent robots.
If I am ‘reading the tea leaves’ correctly
manufacturing will soon be changed forever. The result will be
incredible efficiency in the production of goods that are cheaper, less
capital and labor intensive. Added to this will be lessened energy
consumption of petroleum products because of decreased transportation
costs, and decreased extraction of non-renewable material resources such
as iron, copper etc. When combined with greater efficiency in
alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal, which
equipment could also be made with 3 D printers, the globe could be on
its way to a sustainable future.
The reports of the speed and promise of the
blinding light of 3-D printing combined with the development of
technology which appears to be accelerating at a mind numbing pace, can
send the mind reeling at its promise. But, the consequences are often
being overlooked in this flurry of information ‘spun’ by numerous
sources. Take a ‘journey down Google lane’ and you will see a plethora
of articles on 3 D printing promoting its attributes, but with no
substantial reflective comments.
All this hype has contributed to the utopian
visioning of an information city or “informational city ” (Castells,
1996), (McAdams, 2008). But, due to this rapid development of
technology, the ‘digital divide’ could become much more dramatic with
this shift in the efficiency of automation and productivity. The need
for labor could be only for a relatively few who have technological
skills. The need for low-skilled labor would be exclusively in service
jobs. There have been dramatic advances in creating sizable middle class
populations in cities in high middle income countries such as Brazil,
Mexico, Turkey, India and China; with still vast sectors of their
population living in poverty. This progress could be undone by
manufacturing needing less labor.
There could be a major disruption in the global
economy with this new type of technology if the plutocracy continues to
amass fortunes and drain the money from increases in productivity. The
prosperity will only be limited to the very rich and corporations. Who
will buy the goods if technology creates a disproportional amount of
prosperity for one group and the remainder gets a small fraction or no
portion of it.
Manuel Castells states that an information city is creating a dual city or :
“An urban system socially and spatially polarized between high value-making groups and functions on the one hand and devalued social groups and downgraded spaces on the other hand. This polarization induces increasing integration of the social and spatial core of the urban system, at the same time that it fragments devalued spaces and groups, and threatens them with social irrelevance (Castells, 1996).”
At the present moment, the world politics are
dominated by international plutocrats who are by their business
practices, and dominance in global financial and political institutions
are significantly reducing the the middle class in developed world and
creating a permanent worldwide population living at poverty level. There
is no doubt that further improvements in technology without means to
redistribute the prosperity will result in accelerating income
disparities in both developed and developing countries.
Viewed from another angle, the 3-D printer is could
be seen as the impetus of start-up companies or even individuals doing
small scale manufacturing. This could be an affront for large
multinational companies which are based on economy of scale, cheap labor
and dependent upon an international supply chain. This also could open
an alternative economy of worker-owned companies. There could be a major
battle over patents, copyrights etc., as corporations struggle to
maintain their ‘over-the top’ profits.
Emerging technologies, such as the 3-D printer is
rapidly changing all aspects of culture, the economy, speed of
globalization and politics. There is ample evidence that recently
adopted technology has already made permanent changes to all aspects of
how our present society functions (i.e., computers, jet airplanes,
advanced telecommunications, including internet).
Major shifts in the history of mankind can be
strongly related to changes in technology (i.e., use of refining of
bronze, copper, iron, the plow, the gun; steam engine; electricity, the
telephone, the automobile, etc.). The difference, between nations that
have technology greater than other nations, has been the cause of those
civilizations ceasing to exist (i.e., Aztecs, Incans etc.).
The ruins of those that misused technology to cause
social turmoil at the hands of elitist governments and environmental
degradation are also present (i.e. Mayans, Easter Island etc.). This is
explained in detail by Jared Diamond in his books Guns, Germs and Steel (2005) and Collapse (2011 ).
However, the future does not have to continue to
cause with environmental damage, burgeoning cities in the developed
world with large areas of poverty, increased income inequality, and
depletion of natural resources with the plutocracy fighting to drain the
global economy. Technology, such as the 3 D printer can be used to
increase the wealth of the entire global community.
Sources cited:
Blua, Antoine. “A New Industrial Revolution: The Brave New World of 3D Printing.” RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 6 Apr. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.
Castells, Manuel. The Informational City is a Dual
City: Can It Be Reversed?, High Technology and Low-Income Communities:
Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology.” MIT
Press. 1996. Web. 9 April 2013.
Chacos, Brad. “Staples to Offer “Easy 3D” Printing in 2013.”LAPTOP. 30 November 2012. Web. 8 April 2013.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short
History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years. London: W.W. Norton and
Company, 1995. Print.
Diamond, Jared M. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.
Dorrier, Jason.” First Fully 3D Printed Building May Take Shape This Year.” Singularity Hub. 4 Apr. 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2013.
Franceschi-Bicchierai, Lorenzo. “Urbee 2 Is the 3D-Printed Car of the Future.”Mashable. 1 March 2013. Web. 8 April 2013.
George, Alexander. “3-D Printed Car Is as Strong as Steel, Half the Weight, and Nearing Production. Wired. 27 February 2013.Web. 8 April 2013.
Jaffe, Eric. “In Louisville, Urban Planning Goes 3D.” The Atlantic Cities. 24 September 2012. Web. 12 April 2013.
Johnston, Cat. “Why 3-D Printing Matters.”metroactive. 22 March 2012. Web. 12 March 2013.
McAdams, Michael A. “The Information Age City: A
Bourgeois Utopian Dream.” Urbana: Urban Affairs and Public Policy. Vol. 8
(Autumn 2008).Web. 8 April 2008.
Petronzio, Matt “How 3D Printing Actually Works.” Mashable.com. Web. Mar 28, 2013. 8 April 2013.
Rosenbach, Marcel and Schulz, Thomas. “3-D
Printing: Technology May Bring New Industrial Revolution.”
“A Third Industrial Revolution.” The Economist. 21 April 2012. Web. 8 April 2013.
Wollerton, Megan. “Wild 3D-printed House Can Be Assembled ‘in a Day’” DVICE. 4 Apr. 2013. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.
Ziamou, Lilia. “Interview: Avi Reichental on the 3D Printing Revolution (Part 1).” Huffington Post. 21 March 2013. Web. 12 April 2013.
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