About 5 year ago, I was talking to a friend in a bar. He was very bullish on 3D printing. In his opinion it was going to be the next big thing. He went on to say that every home would have one.. and all our possessions would eventually be printed.
I disagreed. It was my opinion that owning a 3D printer seemed like a really bad idea.
My logic was that, while I may want bespoke objects, generally its not important. But the main downside was that should i want a custom made piece of furniture, or object.. the best 3D printer to make it would never be in my home. Thus owning one would always give me an inferior product, while having to store and upkeep a 3D printer.
I Love technology. Im an early adopter of many mis steps of our time including 'Google Glass', and various consoles.
But for me 3D printers do genuinely seem to offer something in the future, owning one would be a bad.
I would love to be able to goto a store like IKEA and have them print my custom kitchen while i wait, or print my new car in the garage, or even print my new home. This seems like great idea. But I wouldn't want to have to store the device that made it in my home, as it became more and more obsolete every year. If I did ever own such a device, I know that by the time I wanted a new car, a better 3D printer would be available in the car showroom.
Until we reach the time of replicators from startrek, owning your own 3D printer won't give you the most technologically advanced product, because the one making it won't be the most technically advanced.
I see the excitement for new technology. And its human nature to conjure up futuristic scenarios. But 3D printing has since prove itself to be useful creating custom parts that would be too expensive to mass produce.
So the question I started with was, is it dead. For this I would say absolutlly no. It will be back, and probably building our houses of the future, and mass printing our automobiles. Will we want one ourselves?.. I really really doubt it.
But this is the beauty of Steemit. My comments are written here for posterity. Time will tell.
I'd be interested on you thoughts,
Nick