The picture of the tiny device to the right appears relatively harmless, right? Well, if you are in the manufacturing business, you could be looking at the most disruptive long-term threat to your industry. That is because this little device—dubbed RepRap—is a replicating rapid-prototype printer.
I have written extensively about rapid prototype manufacturing before but the RepRap is a beast of different sort—it can theortically replicate and update itself. In other words, not only can the machine print out some basic physcial objects—such as cups, plates and various spare parts—it can also print out a copy of itself.
To gain a true appreciation of why this is so potentially disruptive to the manufacturing industry, I’d encourage you to read this recent article from ComputerWorld which explains how the RepRap is now an open-source project. This suggests that smart people from all around the world will continue to improve upon the device—for free.
This has two huge implications. First, as more people improve the RepRap, it will be able to “print” an ever increasing number of objects. Today, only basic objects can be “printed.” In the near future, however, more complex devices such as cellphones, computer circuits and perhaps even flexible polymer solar cells will be able to be printed from the comfort of a person’s home.
This, in turn, leads to the second and much larger implication—which is that a number of products might some day be able to be printed for free. This would be a paradigm shift of historic proportions. For example, what will happen to the energy industry if people anywhere in the world can simply download the software for highly efficient solar cells and then print those solar cells off from their RepRap for nothing more than the cost of plastic and silicon? At a minimum, it would have a hugely liberating effect on the vast majority of the world’s population which currently doesn’t have access to clean, inexpensive energy. (It would also have sweeping geo-political ramifications.)
The implications of this technology, though, aren’t limited to the energy and manufacturing industries. If a variety of objects can be printed at home, a large portion of today’s distribution network—everything from stores and middle-men to FedEx—will be impacted.
And, at a different level, the device might also usher in a new era for artists, designers and builders as they learn to use the device to build things that were previously unimagineable.
Interested in other future-related posts? Check out these recent posts by Jack Uldrich:
The Future is Cheap
A Race For Our Future
Insuring Our Future
The Future of Advertising is On the Wall
The Future of Food Innovation
The Future of Rural Health Care
Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, robotics, RFID, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.
