re: #373 kirkspencer

Which leads to one of my pets, 3d printing. It’s not here yet, but it’s approaching the point where you can do a LOT with a machine in the home.

There’s an industry forecast that thinks the price of what are presently enterprise class machines will decline by a magnitude. Add the new filaments/powders in development and the finer resolutions and it’s going to be explosive. The main thing to know is that you’ll still go to a store because the store has larger printers and more materials with which to work, but they’re going to print it at the store instead of bringing in finished goods from South Buchastan. (Hint and example. There’s a company - Modern Meadow - that is working on bioprinting leather. Sheets, rolls, whatever. There are several 3d print designs for shoes. There are 3d scanners that will get the measurements, to include of the body, at accuracies within 0.1mm. Custom fit bespoke shoes beckon.)

And it’s going to devastate the people who do the basic labor right now.

The 3D printers aren’t making stuff out of thin air, somebody’s still going to need to manufacturer cartridges of whatever component powders or liquids are used to shape the item… and their workers will have to know some applied chemistry to do it right.