Interesting article here from Technology Review about 3D Printing that works to counter this other article. What got me interested however was a link to this other article from that post on how the Warhammer developer issued a DMCA takedown notice on a 3D printing site for sharing 3D plans of its toy designs.The day that 3D printers will find its way into our homes is probably a ways off. Especially since you probably need knowledge in material design and strength of materials if you plan to make products for everyday use. What more for products in highly stressed situations (like car parts!) Current materials however aren't really that strong and are just for prototyping or for use in products that don't really need strength (like toys). This is one technology I like to keep tabs on. As for the doubters of 3D printing, one way to kill an idea is to water it with doubt. But like a tsunami, casting doubt on a technological revolution is like holding back a tsunami by shouting swear words at it.
The scary thing about 3D printing is that like the 2D printers that we have now, because of the ability to rapidly produce a printout, we ended up wasting a lot of paper in the process. The good thing about paper is that it could be easily recycled. 3D printed resin plastic however is another thing. I guess the point I'm driving at is that in the future we should learn to print responsibly.
