Hi Robert,
An interesting position. Not sure I totally agree with you on all points.
Firstly, we, as a race, cannot create anything now. In reality, we really can’t create much more with 3D printing than without it. It’s just that many more of us have the technology available to us, should we wish to use it. There are some rare instances where Additive Manufacturing allows us to make an existing technology more efficient and I’ve no doubt that trend will continue and gain pace. And that 3D printing technologies will give rise to new and hitherto impossible products but I’ve seen precious few of them. The vast majority of those have no more utility than those products on which their design was based.
Secondly, I regret to say we aren’t all able to use 3D printers. Although much of the advertising copy of those who wish to profit from the 3D Boom would have you believe otherwise, It still takes a fair amount of technical understanding and ability to get the results one would like and keep one’s printer working well. And perhaps most importantly to know what to do when things, as they sometimes (quite often!) do, go wrong. Of course, it’s just possible that we’re on the threshold of a Brave New World, where engineering degrees are as common as driving licenses but I for one won’t be holding my breath, waiting for that to happen.
When I first acquired my printer, I took what you call Mr Adetutu’s pragmatic approach by offering to design and print any replacement item for any member of my local community. I spent hours dropping leaflets, chatting to people in pubs and on their doorsteps, trying to convey the endless possibilities that my machine offered to them. After two months, I had made a grand total of ONE replacement knob for the chip frier in my local pub, which enabled them to produce chips more quickly - RESULT!!. Of course, I had replaced many knobs and such in my own home but it became pretty evident to me that people are used to other people making things for them and that’s the way they like it. Quite simply, most people in my immediate vicinity don’t care how things work, or why. They only care that they do, what ownership of that product says about them, and that they’re relatively easy to use. The human being is the ultimate flexible machine and people can easily adapt even to products that don’t exactly suit their purpose. To some extent, they’re also concerned about what their property looks like, but usually more that it fits their chosen lifestyle than anything borne of an aesthetic sensibility.
In locations where the population is more concerned with the true practicalities of life, I can imagine that people would be more receptive to such a technology because they would more easily see it’s utility to them. But strangely enough, people in Developed Countries usually only think that way when they’re at work because they’re clear about the task at hand, which is the reason that commerce and Industry have accepted Additive Manufacturing so readily in Western Europe and the USA/Canada.
Of course, there are exceptions to all of the above - the Maker Movement being a good example - but, as I see it, these are the Realities Of Life in the Western World and they aren’t changing anywhere near so quickly as 3D printing technology is developing. By the time the average 9am-5pm guy even thinks about owning his own 3D printer ( If he ever does! ) it will be easier to use to the point where it requires only the push of a button, which is to say that he’ll press “Yes!” on his TV screen during a Nike ad and a machine, somewhere, will whir into action, making a pair of sneakers that fit his feet, and his tastes, to a tee. After all, Nike, Levi’s, Apple, Samsung, Ford and all the rest, have no interest in allowing people to make things themselves. In fact, they have a vested interest in maintaining the Status Quo and have enormous resources at their disposal to ensure that happens. Just as, when any other seismic event happens, things eventually find a new state of equilibrium, things will balance out. For sure, more people will make stuff than at any time in the last century or so but not that many and not for that long.
I regret to say that, if you are looking forward to living on a planet where everybody makes everything they themselves need, and no more, I can only suggest you enrol on one of the proposed initiatives to colonise Mars because I’m here to tell ya, this old World aint a changing.
Pot8oSh3d, The Potato Shed, Symondshyde Farm. January 2015
