The Coming Rise of Lo-Fi Things
3D printing is coming. And it‘s not gonna be pretty — at first.
This is an article that I wrote a few years back. It’s still relevant today. I hope you enjoy it.
3D printing will do for everyday things what computers did for documents, audio, and video — make them sharable without having to manufacture, package, and ship them. 3D printed objects will be modest at first. But we’ll quickly advance to the seemingly impossible.
The quality of just about everything humans make has been on the rise for more than a century. That is up until computers came along.
Ironically, the computer revolution, albeit a boon for mankind, actually brought with it a reduction in the quality of media.
And very soon a similar reduction in quality is about to befall everyday things.
The fall and rise of media quality
The past half-century brought with it a sudden drop in the quality of audio, video, and graphics.
However, that was followed by a corresponding rise as each of the various media technologies advanced.
- Early computers had one font, one color, no bold or italic. We had dot-matrix printing and it was not pretty. Then laser printers and Apple came along and we now live in a WYSIWYG world where millions of books can be downloaded and shared without shipping.
- We went from mimeograph machines that were big and bulky and costly to FAX machines that sat on a desktop. And now we have sophisticated video conferencing and screen sharing in the palm of our hands.
- The first MP3s were a giant step down in audio quality from vinyl records. But MP3s were accepted by the masses due to their portability and sharability. Digital audio quality has since reached a pinnacle.
- Online video was at first blocky and choppy and oftentimes intermittent. Now we have super-duper-high-def video streaming on-demand on our handheld mobile devices.
The reduction in the quality of media can be attributed to the fact that content had to be digitized and reproduced using new and limited technology.
Now a similar fall and rise are about to happen to everyday household items as a result of 3D printing — the digitizing and “printing” of everyday things.
“Things” come into the digital age
3D printing is nothing new. It’s been around for decades. And in fact, there are some extremely high-quality 3D printing contraptions. But they’re not cheap. They certainly aren’t affordable by the average consumer — yet.
As technology improves and spreads, 3D printing is becoming more and more affordable. However, the more affordable the kit, the lower the quality of things it’s able to print.
There was a day when color printers, video recorders, and digital audio systems cost thousands of dollars. They’re now a commodity. The same trend is happening with 3D printing. It won’t be long before most households are addicted to their low-end consumer edition 3D printer.
This is how it all starts
There are currently some very sophisticated 3D printers that are capable of printing multi-colored plastic with a variety of properties, and even houses and food and human organs. Cutting edge 3D printers have gotten so sophisticated that they are able to print a single object with multiple metals.
At first, the quality of 3D-printed goods will be below what we’re used to with mass-manufactured goods. But it will be sufficient to produce your average everyday household items such as pet toys, coat hooks, spatulas, dishes, hairbrushes, etc.
It will be some time before affordable home 3D printers will be capable of producing a nice sharp stainless steel knife with a wooden handle. But it won’t be long before we’ll be printing a plain black plastic spatula or a simple plastic coat hook at home.
These things are not going to look as slick, and perhaps won’t last as long as their mass-produced counterparts, but they will be of sufficient quality to do the job — just as dot matrix printing was sufficient to share written documents.
You might also enjoy:
* Why are there humans on Star Trek if it takes place in the future?
* Is God a 13 billion-year-old baby? — The Big Baby Hypothesis
Leapfrogging centralized manufacturing
In the developed world we’re used to owning high-quality things. So adoption will be slow. But in the developing world, home-spun one-off manufacturing will leapfrog the massive factories that pump out shiny new things by the millions.
Cellular technology is a classic example. Cell phones are leap-frogging landlines in many parts of the developing world. Landline? What’s a landline?
A world of monochrome things doesn’t sound very enticing to the average Westerner, but to the poorer populations in the developing world, it will be a huge leap forward and a valuable weapon in the war on poverty.
Things that were once impossible
The quality of video and audio and graphics plummeted. Now, media quality is dazzling. Eventually, 3D printed things will experience a rebound in quality. In the meantime, even lo-fi 3D printing will change the world by making things sharable via the internet.
- VCR quality was just okay at first. But for the first time, we had a convenient way for consumers to share videos.
- Audio cassettes were flimsy, but they allowed us to re-record and share music.
- FAX machines looked downright awful at first, but they made it possible to send printed documents around the world in minutes instead of days.
Now, 3D printing will let a toymaker in Thailand share her work with a child in Chile without having to manufacture it, package it, and ship it around the planet.
Moreover, 3D-printed things have the potential to be more useful than the things we have today. Things can be made with 3D printers that are impossible with traditional manufacturing processes — things we can’t even imagine today.
3D printing will provide some much-needed relief to Mother Earth.
Just as computer technology took billions of documents, books, CDs, magazines, and letters out of the mailman’s bag, consumer-level 3D printing will take things out of the shipping containers and delivery vans of the world.
Consider the current state of global economies, the demands of an aging population and shrinking workforce, and the huge eco-footprint of materialism. 3D printing might be just the thing we need to put on the breaks on this crazy train.
