In terms of Cody Wilson's gun,

In terms of Cody Wilson’s gun, do you think any bureau will be printing the guns? A mid-sized one in London told us they are inundated with requests but there’s no way they would consider it and they don’t imagine any of their competitors will fancy becoming an illegal arms dealer either.
http://www.prsnlz.me/maker/the-fully-3d-printed-gun-is-here/

There are much easier and safer ways to make a zip gun. This is media fear-mongering.

In the US it is illegal for the print bureaus to print these without following all the regulations a gun manufacturer need to follow.

I could print one for myself on my equipment legally, but I could not print one for a friend, or even my wife.

A more interesting problem is what if somebody would embed the parts as infill into a larger, innocuous design and have a bureau print it. The bureau printed something - say a bunch of animal sculptures, that the recipient modified (removed the outer animal shaped object to reveal the inner gun parts) - did the bureau print a gun illegally? If enough actions are needed to extract the parts from the outer print, could that qualify as an 80% and be legal?

Hadn’t thought about that Mike, I went to a few bureaus on visits this week, some offer and XYZ pricing service so as you say you could print the gun’s design inside something and the bureau may not have time to check.

It will be very interesting to see what comes of this.

a 3D printed high quality wheelchair would be nice. Disability equipment is overpriced and the good stuff is out of reach for many of the worlds population.

I couldn’t agree more, there’s a lot of focus from the press on the negative aspects like these 3D printed arms, but what about this kind of 3D printed arms? http://www.prsnlz.me/industry-news/3d-printed-exoskeleton-let/

The whole personal manufacturing as a whole is getting to a point where this is going to get very interesting. Not just 3d printing, but the whole gamut of tabletop CNC additive and subtractive processes.

It no longer takes a lot of skill or effort to make something functional. Up until now people who ‘rolled their own (gun, knife, sword, automobile, etc)’ took great pride in what they created. With that pride would come the responsibilities taken to stay in possession of what they have created.

The thoughtlessness it now takes to simply tap your finger and have an object that can cause serious harm to another may equate into thoughtless actions taken with that made item.

Or to put it another way, my 3 year old is now perfectly capable of making very dangerous things. She does not have the cognitive ability to understand the permanence of death - her only encounter with the concept is on TV and the ‘dead people’ come back the next day on another show.

Exoskeletons are awesome, 3D printing for this application is ideal because practically everything has to be custom made.

i know - the world requires people to be thoughtful and wise with the use of this tech.

That’s a fascinating thought Mike, will taking away the craft to an item lead to thoughtlessness in terms of using these items?

The problem is John, if you speak to anybody who has heard about the tech they immediately talk about the 3D printed gun, not the exoskeletons nor the custom made implants, just guns. I know that at the moment in time it is a sensitive subject but as others have said if you really want a gun why not just buy one? They’re not a scarce product.

we can just remain positive :slight_smile:

3d printed droids solar powered harvesting crops, planting seeds, collecting grasshoppers before they become locusts. So much of farming around the world could be improved through robotics - and its 3D printing that will allow anybody to innovate.

i see the boston dynamics bigdog soon to be as shorefooted as a mountain goat. we tend not to farm mountains because it’s rough terrain, irrigation issues. but walking droids can handle it. edit : will be able to handle it.

People tend to fear the unknown. People tend to focus on the negative and not the positive.

Pandora’s opened this box and there is no nailing the lid back shut.

I now get to worry about my 3 year old when she becomes school age printing something dangerous and bringing it to school to settle a kindergarten “do not, do too, do not, do too” argument.

That little girl is growing up in a world where all she’s ever known is having a 3d printer in her basement and she can make whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. No waiting to go to the store. No 'Sorry honey, we can’t afford that".

If she can imagine it and draw it - or find it on the internet, she can have it.

There is a fundamental difference in thought process there. I still find myself at a store, holding a $4.99 package of some random injection molded junk and think to myself - why am I even thinking about putting this in the cart? I can print it out at home for a nickle. She is growing up without the first thought to go to the store to get it.

Can you imagine her school projects? She has access to robots that can make stuff that is difficult for skilled craftsmen with years of experience to make.

Yes, It is utterly terrifying that my 3 year old is capable of creating a functional gun TODAY. I am also utterly envious of the possibilities that little girl has in front of her at the same time. If I can instill into her the maturity and responsibility to NOT print that gun and bring it to school, can you imagine what she will be able to do by the time she graduates high school?

This is all on equipment that she has personal access and control over. Maybe she even decides to build some of it herself in the future. Now imagine what the print bureaus will have for gear and capabilities.

A gun is a VERY simple machine involving a bit of basic chemistry. Today a print bureau could print a gun, and the parts for a machine used to print an ear and liver. Imagine now a black market for custom made organs.

It’s going to take a long time for society and it’s laws to catch up with this disruptive technology.

The bureaus won’t touch printing a gun. But how to stop a 15 year old kid from cranking out hundreds of them in his bedroom? Or an 8 year old naively and secretly (from their parents) printing one for a neighborhood criminal? Is the kid responsible? Are the kid’s parents (who didn’t know that such an action even took place)?

Am I going to get put in jail because my little girl told a robot that she built to move in a pattern generated by a mathematical formula she downloaded from the internet?