Sat, 31 Aug 2013 21:29:19 GMT
It seems that 3d printing and scanning is slowly approaching the mainstream. There are some nice gadgets which are affordable. Maybe soon, we can just print our dishes out of disposable material, or the missing wrench of the right size. Probably a good thing.
On the other hand, we might run into a pattern that is very common: There will be a lot of people refusing this kind of technology on the one hand, on the other hand there will be a lot of people who overestimate this technology and try to use it even for things it is not ready for.
It has been similar with digital photography: I can remember photographers complaining about digital photography and its bad quality in general - which was a good point, the first digital cameras were really bad. Same for digital sound and digital television. Everything takes its time.
There are still people who refuse to use digital cameras, or listen to music from digital sound media, because they think it has worse quality.
The same might happen with the availability of 3d printers and scanners. While as soon as some point is arrived, a lot of people might use them, at some point it might become clear that your home-printed pottery, pralines, keys, fleshlights and snifter valves just lack of quality. And then, 20 years later, when the technology finally produces the desirable results, people will refuse to use it.
Anyway, 3d printing will hopefully make our lifes easier and more comfortable someday. Let's just wait until it happens.