Grand Finale - Discussing 3D Printing, Wars and all the Rest

For closing our blog, a few of us convened for a little experiment. We had a little chat and discussed various topics around 3D printing. Here the transcript, enjoy! 

1) I will get a 3D printer, if…

Chantal: I will get a 3D printer if the cost of printers goes down and the value added by printing objects instead of buying them off the shelf justifies the investment.

Graham: I posted an article on the blog about the poor guys face being reconstructed by use of a 3D printer...i will get a 3D printer when the detail of the items justifies the quality, that level of detail is getting better and better all the time…

Chantal: Yes, I might not get a 3D printer for myself right away, but if businesses and medical facilities started using them first, then I wouldn't be against renting a house printer for a week or buying objects printed from 3D printed designs. Hershey's chocolate for instance is starting to sell 3D printed chocolate bars.

Graham: Women and chocolate! ha love it the main factors most (if not all) will buy them is 1. Price 2. Compact size...nobody wants a monster of a printer, they were left in the 1980’s...

Chantal: Well for certain applications you would still need large printers, for instance if you were to print a house or a car or some larger objects then you might not actually buy a large 3D printer but renting one might be good if the cost is justified

Graham: Right, but most people I’d imagine would still go to a type of workshop or factor to have a 3D print of a car made...as in, even if the technology allows you to print a car, most won’t. Because you then have to assemble the car! the printer just gives you the parts…

Chantal: Yes. So I would imagine that the 3D printing industry would have a shape quite similar to that of regular printing and manufacturing, with large printing houses that could produce large goods or objects and small personal printers that would just be for smaller objects printed from custom designs.

Graham: Side question...if the cost to 3D print something was 5 Eur, and the cost to buy it 5 Eur, would you see a 3D printer as any better investment? because the materials (liquids) still need to be paid for. I would so I wouldn’t ever have to go shopping!!!

Chantal: I'm not sure, because you would still have to find the designs and buy the supplies for what you want to make, and you have the initial investment of buying the printer and printer repairs etc. So if it ends up being like with regular printers then the cost of having a printer, buying refills and fixing it would end up being quite high compared to the value of one actual printed object. Maybe if it was a food printer, I would see it as a good investment, but for goods that would only be bought once in a while, probably not. For designers and small businesses though, I would see it as a very good investment to showcase designs and new products, or even just for prototyping. What types of potential applications did you have in mind?

Graham: I suppose for an item like a cup, I’m not sure I wouldn’t just pay the 2 EUR in the shop!

Benedikt: I personally will get a 3D printer in the future (maybe shared with other people) as I want to experiment with the technology. I don’t see an immediate special value for myself though. I am not into ornaments and statues for example. Once commercial 3D printers are however fast enough to print objects in mere minutes - and able to recycle any of these said objects, I’d by one right away. Cost does not play such a big role for me once buying a printer is below my salary after taxes minus my regular living costs.

2) If I could print anything I would print…

Graham: A beautiful house in the Italian hillside of Florence in Tuscany…

Chantal: Same, a house. Preferably with sea view on the Mediterranean.

Graham: Another thing I would do is to print a healthy bone for my cousins leg, who had a bad motorcycle accident at Xmas. I would give up the house for that...

Benedikt: I would print out board games that I always wanted to play and couldn’t get because they are not produced anymore or can only be ordered via obscure ways. And I would print out the models of some cars from the Pixar movie of the same name. My nephew is totally into them and some models are impossible to get.

Chantal: With a small personal 3D printer though, I would probably just try out some designs for small objects.

Graham: I think that the technology is one that it interests peoples imaginations, so I would be interesting to put 100 people in a room and get to understand what people consider to be something they are interested in...some people like flowers, or jewellry or fashion, and normally spend plenty of time on those types of crafts. Would those be not hand made anymore?

Chantal: I think it would be detrimental to some businesses that produce lower quality goods, but for businesses that sell goods made directly from natural things like flowers or pearls, I don't think that there would be a risk, since the appeal of it is partially due to the imperfections and singular characteristics of the natural product. For example, fake pearls have been around for a long time, yet this has not destroyed the pearl industry.

Graham: Most people consider that the ‘beauty’ of the project is the imperfections…

Benedikt: I don’t want to sound cynical, but I don’t think 3D printers will free people from their “creative shackles”. Just like regular 2D design on the computer, it’s too much effort for most people to learn how to do it just to be a bit creative. It will however usher in a new type of artist producing designs solely for 3D printing and making good money with it. Like people now do with Etsy.

3) Considering the turmoil about printing weapons, I think 3D printing should be more regulated in the future? (How?)

Graham: The problem with gun regulations (mostly in the US) is that it is in their constitution. Most Americans feel that they have the right to hold a firearm to protect their homes. But whether a gun is printed or bought (in the US, they can buy them in supermarkets!), it is still a gun. And even hand made guns they can’t regulate, so not sure how they could do printed ones…

Graham: Many countries of the world have no or very lacking gun controls in place, the only thing to stop some countries is the cost of the materials needed.

Chantal: Yes, I agree that in countries where there is no or little regulation, it will be quite hard to monitor guns, but then again, in those places, it already is. One aspect I would be concerned about is gun control in highly regulated countries, where the monitoring nowadays might be impossible to maintain the future. The materials problem will, in my opinion, remain in the same countries that already experience it today, since 3D printing just puts the materials together but the initial cost would be the same.

Graham: Right, so the regulations at the moment are identification for the guns (although not strong enough in some countries). So maybe the regulations of the 3D printed guns might be the control of the steel needed for the gun. But then again, people could just say they are printing a wrench, not a gun.

Benedikt: I think the we might be looking at a wider problem with this though. It will be pretty much impossible to control every single gun 3D blueprint as slight modifications can already make it evade any “tagging” or similar measures. If this is getting out of hand (terrorist attack with printed guns, uprising somewhere, massacres, …) there will be the a public outcry (yeah :D)  for tougher regulations. Which will only be possible by controlling the entire infrastructure for distributing and sharing blueprints or controling the ownership of 3D printers. They will have to be registered just like guns today, simply by association with guns. Do you think this will be the way to go? Or is the trend simply unstoppable without banning the technology alltogether?

Chantal: Well there would probably have to be an attempt at monitoring gun designs and such, but it is pretty hard to control such information nowadays, so gun designs would always be floating around somewhere.

Benedikt: It will be just like file and music-sharing was. But I guess we have learned from back then? Or have we? There is much more at stake now than just commercial interests of some industries.

Graham: Wars are started by guns...if the availability is much more widespread, we could see the number of conflicts increase rapidly...

Benedikt: That is true. If 3D printing got fast, cheap and reliable enough, you could arm an entire country within days. Reserve soldiers and militias wouldn’t need their guns at home anymore. Just an emergency “broadcast” to all printers of these people would do.

Chantal: What if you monitored the individual printers though instead of the designs? With some kind of alert for illegal printing patterns.

Benedikt: That sounds difficult. You mean like the same way providers can identify music and films being downloaded nowadays?

Graham: I like the idea of illegal printing patterns etc. but as history constantly shows, people always get around it somehow...

Benedikt: In this case however the potential repercussions of that are much more severe and unpredictable than the ones of music- and movie-downloads. Anyone could just shoot anyone else. Uprisings would work much faster and more violently, gangs could overpower police-forces, lots of groups could be radicalised much more quickly that might not be radicalised at all without such easy access to weapons. The image of the “civilized humanity” would be challenged like never before in history.

Graham: Is humanity civilized? I’m not sure where that saying comes from. But for sure, technology improvements could threaten and destroy our own worlds, ironically when people want to improve technology to enhance the world!

Chantal: But that happens with almost any technology, right? I mean, there were no cyberwars before the internet, so this would just be more of the same.

Benedikt: I’m not so sure about that. To be a cyberwarrior you need significant knowledge and skill. Printing a gun is something else. I am trying to think of a technology that could be comparable in ease of access and potential destructive power.

Chantal: How about terrorist activity with homemade bombs? Could 3D printed guns be compared to that?

Benedikt: Hm… maybe. I’m just trying to think here in “user experience” terms. Products and services that make access to them more convenient, have usually much more potential for success. Eliminating one step makes all the difference. And 3D printing take away even the step of getting ingredients, putting any real effort into it except for the assembly of parts (which is more like assembling LEGO than producing a complex chemical compound).

4) I think intellectual copyright has to extend to 3D printing and should be similarly enforced as it currently is (Why?)

Graham: IP & copyright control will really be the battle of the future. With most money going to the lawyers...the patent laws that have existed for Irish and European levels will definitely have to be changed to allow for the progress of this new technology. Centuries old laws exist, and they only modify them to add a new technological word, I remember from my patents classes.

Chantal: The shape this IP will take will probably be copyrighting on the designs in my opinion. But just like with the gun control, violations of the IP will be hard to track. I would see this going the same way as the ebook industry: some books are free, some books are paid for and some are illegally redistributed, but overall the industry is booming. I think the 3D printing industry would have the same potential.

Benedikt: The issue is already pressing, but with 3D printing it will become much more pressing as the impact is similarly strong and could bring even stronger benefits or downsides. If I modify a figurine somebody uploaded - who owns that physical figurine?

Chantal: Well there could be IP on the design and you would just own a copy or a license so any physical good derived from it would just be like a printed copy of a book: the book's words belong to the author or publisher and the copy belongs to you. Applied to 3D printing, the object belongs to you but the designs and right for distribution belong to the author.

Graham: I agree with Chantal in the “violations of the IP would be hard to track” but I suppose all designs are patentable, so it would make sense to know, that when you design something, to include if it is covered by 3D printing!

5) 3D printing will make us fundamentally re-think the way we treat material possessions

Graham: I’m not sure it will on this one. As in, with every new technology or process, it starts off as a phase, but over time, becomes the norm. People don’t think about it, they just do it, because it’s human instinct.

Benedikt: As mentioned above it’s all about convenience and solving problems. An ideal 3D printer (fast, colors, any material, any size) would enable us to print any kind of non-electronic (and maybe even those) objects ourselves. Think of all the objects you are currently buying. Candle holders, picture frames, cutlery, cups, chairs etc. etc. You could print all this yourself.

Chantal: Well potentially, if you were constantly 3D printing quick fixes for whatever you need right now and disposable objects then yes, it would result in a lot of waste, but that would also be quite expensive, so most people would probably not do that.

Benedikt: In my opinion this drives people mainly in buying such objects - convenience and cost-efficiency. A secondary factor are customization/personal value. All three of these would be addressed by 3D printing. Why go to Ikea when you can print that chair? Why wait for a difficult replacement part to be shipped, if you can just print it? Why get a 1 in a million figurette if you could customize one for yourself?

Graham: I think that the large cargos of the world might be shipping pure liquid, no the heavy goods of the world in the future. It might be like liquid containers going through the Panama Canal…

Benedikt: Yes, just shipping raw materials instead of the actual goods. Much more efficient. Storage spaces could be unified to for material storage instead of all kind of objects being stored separately.

Graham: Right! And much more cost effective, as fuel bills etc. would be probably less!

Chantal: In terms of material stock and storage, 3D printing would help reduce useless stock and enable even small businesses to have a virtually endless supply of goods that would only be limited to printing time and materials. Say, if you needed glasses, your optician could just print them for you, depending on what design you want, and everything could be easily customised. Useless stock that ends up never being sold nowadays would never even get printed if all was print-on-demand.

Benedikt: I think that would be a transitional period. But if the technology advances (and we have enough raw materials), why would I still need to “own” anything, if I could just print it out anywhere. Would that lead to crazy waste? Or crazy sharing? A rise of new recycling?

Chantal: Maybe it could lead to a new industry of "home-recycling" machines, wherefrom you would be able to extract the raw materials of your waste and reuse them as input for your 3D printer. Then we would no longer be paying for waste management, it would be better both economically and ecologically speaking and we could have the goods we need on demand made from our previous goods. Say, if you recycle your plastic cup, you could reuse the plastic to make a plastic container the next day.

Benedikt: People would WANT to get old objects then to recycle them. And not throw anything away. So this would be a conditional technology for make 3D printing really big. Viable on the spot recycling.

Graham: In a greener planet, large companies especially have a responsibility to ensure that any practice they take on is without the regulations of the government and European parliament. Recycling of 3D Printed material is just another item for them to deal with (if they want to avoid large fines)

6) Is 3D printing just a passing trend or is 3D printing here to stay?

Chantal: I think 3D printing will be here to stay, especially considering the various potential applications, both on the large scale for automation and on a smaller scale for personal or SME use. 3D printing could enable faster, more customisable manufacturing, reduce shipping costs

and maybe even enhance the reuse of local materials in the long run. Its potential for prototyping would also be non-negligible and help entrepreneurial initiatives grow in a more organic way.

Graham: Agreed. I believe it’s here to stay because of the potential cost benefits to each industry and sector. But also because, as we know with all computers, the main reason they grew was because it allowed people to process their work faster. If clients can move the transfer of files around in a controlled and legal manner, businesses will gain the benefit of “less reinvention of the wheel” scenarios. There is the end of a global recession still in progress and any technology that helps move client, customer, medical and infrastructure enhancements will alway be openingly accepted with open arms. The technology is in it’s infant stage, but in 10 or 20 years, such improvements will have been made about the cost, digital, transferring, print patterns, and detail, people will see them as an integrated part of the business (like the fax machine was before email replaced).

Benedikt: Right now I am wondering though if 3D printing will really have commercial success or always will stay a niche process for prototyping, customization etc. There are limits to the technology when it comes to material and as long as we cannot print more durable or conducting elements and not print them much faster, there are not so many incentives for “common” people to get into it. We would need something like a “universal 3D printer”. The fragmented landscape of specialized printers won’t make this big by themselves. We have a certain bias and believe technological progress will continue infinitely and solve all problems we currently see (e.g. with 3D printing), but maybe some of them are technically really impossible to solve (though they might make way to an alternative way of achieving similar things as 3D printing that we haven’t even thought of yet). Besides that there is the problem with materials and resources. We don’t have unlimited supply of plastic/oil for example which is currently the main material for commercial 3D printers. Personally I would wish for 3D printing to become big and I do see some signs that it has good chances. But it’s not as much of a sure bet as some of our arguments (and previous posts) might imply.