March 29, 2013 • 37 mins
Sure 3D printers are cool, but where will they ultimately take us? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Julie discuss some of the amazing things happening in 3D printing, what the future will bring and whether it will destroy us all.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to stuff to Blow
your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Tegli.
And recently we talked about objects. We talked about the
world of objects, we live in, the way we become
attached to different objects. But another huge part of that is,
(00:24):
of course, how do we create objects, How do objects
enter our world for us to relate to them. Also, um,
this idea that you know, our ability to make objects easily,
which we talked about being one of the hallmarks of
the twentieth century and perhaps the reason for an uptick
and collecting things and hoarding. Um, you know that this
(00:44):
idea of putting our hands on something easily is the
reason for our object fetishism. So of course we look
at something like three D printing and we begin to
extrapolate the future and the future of our collection of
objects and our making of objects, right, because I mean,
one of the big things about creating obvious this of course,
manufacturing the ability to make objects that are the same um.
(01:08):
And this is important to varying degrees. I mean, just
on a very on an aesthetic level, there's like an amulant,
you like, then somebody is probably pouring using a mold
to pour those amulets up to make identical ambulance via manufacturing.
If you're having something that requires precise parts in it,
then you need all the parts to be the same
so that you can mass produce that item, be at
(01:29):
a gun, an automobile or whatever. I mean. Obviously, manufacturing
is is crucial to our modern object feel technological world.
Let's how you say amulants, like like in the World
of Wizards, and really it's sort of a niche market.
Well yeah, but I mean still, I mean they're ammulets,
(01:50):
as we discussed in the objects pocasts. They're ammulets in
the sense of something magical or religious that I might buy,
say an amulant market somewhere like in in Bangkok or something.
But then there's, of course, there is jewelry, jewelry that
is molded, jewelry that is all the same um action figures,
et cetera, bits of art that are mass produced. Okay, yeah,
So I think what you're getting at here is that
(02:11):
we are now at a turning point in mass production,
which is actually now in a more customized realm thanks
to three D printing, and three D printing has been
around for about twenty years. But we're at a point
technologically where we can really take this, or the industry
can really take this and do something with it um
in a very significant way. Yeah, because earlier on it
(02:32):
was more expensive three D printing. It was more of
a more about just creating prototypes. But we're already in
an age where like we have a three D printer.
There is a three D printer here at how stuff
works that we purchased for about six hundred bucks, and
we can print out not anything, but a surprising variety
of small plastic things can be printed out. So everyone
has seen three D printing. I mean, it's it's it
(02:53):
doesn't really do us any good, just waste a lot
of time discussing what it is. But but essentially we're
talking about additive manufacturing as opposed to subtractive manufacturing. Subtractive
manufacturing means I have, say a sheet of metal, or
I have a block of wood, and I look at
it and I and I know the object I want
(03:15):
to produce is inside of that. So if it's in
the block of wood, then I have to carve it down,
or I have to have an assembly line that carves
it down. If it's in a sheet of metal, then
I have to have a press that that punches that
that particular piece out of the sheet metal or if
it or it could be a sheet of wood, and
you're using, you know, some sort of mechanical saw device
to create the part that you need out of that wood.
(03:38):
So I'm taking a hole and reducing it to the
part I need or to the thing I need, and
then we have additive manufacturing. And this means that there
is no large piece that I'm cutting cutting things down from.
I'm not whittling something out of a log. I'm starting
from the very tiniest debt and building up. Yeah. But
I think it is so cool about that is that
you're taking the sculpting process and which you would normally
(04:01):
do in manufacturing, and you're sort of abstracting it into
a CAD file which then does the sculpting for you. Um,
So as you say you're you're not taking away, you're
sort of depositing layer upon layer. And I like to
think of it in terms of an ink jet printer, right,
because that's something everybody is familiar with you've got your
(04:23):
ink that is deposited when the printer goes back and
forth and back and forth on a piece of paper. Well,
three D printing is similar, except that instead of just
going back and forth and back and forth, it can
go forward and backwards and up and down, and that
allows you to get a good spread of depositing whatever
sort of polymer plastic that you have, so or rather
(04:45):
than having ink, you have this plastic. And it's this
sculpting process, this layer upon layer, and in traditional three
D printing so far, when I talk about the layers,
i'm talking about the thickness of about a sheet of paper.
Of various types of three D printers, of course, they're
the ones that just essentially are printing with with a
with a heated plastic than cools. Uh. And then you
(05:09):
have even more you have crazier versions that are using
say they're using metal, they're using other other substances, curing
them with lasers or ultraviolet lights. Sometimes there's two different
types of materials that are coming together and chemically curing
and a single one. So there's there's there's a lot
going on not only the physical level, but also sometimes
at the chemical level. UM it's it's some pretty fascinating stuff.
(05:31):
The one we have here that you will be able
to see in some videos. It's just a simple um
heated plastic situation though. Yeah, and that's the direct three
D printing that you just referenced um So that's going
in multiple layers of material over the same surface. And then,
as you mentioned to, there's bind or three D printing,
and that is light direct three D printing. It uses
injent nozzles to apply liquid and then form each new layer.
(05:55):
But under unlike direct printing, binder printing uses two separate
materials that come together to form each printed layer. It's
quicker and you can use more colors and materials. And
then there's the photo polymerization, and this is a three
D printing technology where you have the drops of liquid
plastic and they are exposed to that laser beam of
(06:17):
ultra violet light and s l s. This is a
really interesting one that has used a lot. It's called
centering and it relies on a laser to melt a
flame retardant plastic powder, which then solidifies to form and
printed layer. Okay, we're gonna talk a little bit more
about that in terms of a certain dress that a
certain burlesque queen war. Um. But that is awesome because
(06:38):
it really does give you the flexibility and the strength
of materials to create these objects. Yeah, and there's that.
And another one we're going to get to also involves
the same technique since except that using a titanium powder
and the laser hits the powder fuses it together into
one little bit of titanium. But it's not a dress.
You'll find out what it is later. It's not a
(06:58):
bulletproof dress now. Um. But all of this is really
cool and it's very important because I mean it really
has implications in nearly every corner of our existence. I mean,
not only can you dream up and make whatever you
want from a CAD file, but three D printing really
will be incorporated into everything you touch. Um, you know,
from the airplane you board to the medicine you consume.
(07:21):
And we'll talk more about this, we'll talk more about
the current applications in the future applications. But I just
wanted to point this out that this is not just
some sort of like oh cool, I would love to
have this in my home. It's going to be like
the next thing that early adopters are looking at in
terms of technology, it really is going to be a
game changer and how we live and how we consume. Yeah,
(07:41):
and I think one of the cooler examples I was
running across in part because it cascades over to some
of my hobbies, but I think it also serves as
a good example was an article called Warhammer at war
how Home three D printers are disrupting miniature gaming by
Alex Castle. And this was an article from from January,
and he was taking a look at miniature war gaming.
(08:04):
If you're not familiar with this, this of course is
the idea that you're playing like a role playing game
or a military strategy game on a tabletop and you
have little miniatures to represent individuals or individual forces. Now,
of course you could use just a little cardboard cutout.
You could use a piece of paper with a number.
But as we all know, it gets us more into
a game. If we have an object that we can
(08:24):
we can identify with more, it looks more like the
thing it is, It looks interesting, so we attached to
it more. In Warhammer miniatures and most minute a lot
of miniature gamings anyway. Anyway, um, you'll buy the piece
unpainted and or unassembled, so you're there's also that ikea
factor level. I was going to say that that I
did it, and there's a sense of pride, right yeah,
(08:45):
So you get it in the mail, it's like, oh,
it looks really cool, and then I actually painted it,
and I might have painted it really well. Some people
out there paint these things to within an inch of
their life. Um. Other people you know, not so well,
but still they did it, so they have even more
personal attachment to it. Now to get a fine resin
model kit like this, you can spend some you know,
uppards of a single figure like that's smaller than your pinky. Um.
(09:11):
I am guilty of this at times as well, because
it's just if you want something that's that fine a quality,
there aren't that many people putting it out, and then
you have to pay their prices for it. So into
three D printing, So suddenly we have a situation where
people have the ability to lo and behold print small
little miniatures in um pretty awesome degree of detail, not
(09:33):
quite up to the detail of these risen resin molded
kits that you can buy for twenty to fifty dollars,
but still decent, decent quality. So the article really dealt with,
first of all, the question of how does this affect
the bottom line for a company like Games Workshop, who
puts out these models and and their whole business line
is selling more and more of these models to hobbyous
(09:55):
because we're fast approaching the age where someone could instead
I mean right now, if you want to steal a
bunch of these things, you would have to physically steal
them from a store or off the back of a truck,
or if you were really elaborate, you would get them
and create your own mold of them and start manufacturing themselves.
But there's a lot of work involved in that. But
three D printers see this fast approaching me the age
(10:16):
where it would be equivalent to to stealing music or
a movie. If we want to steal music or you know,
an album, then you just need to go to the
right slum on the internet, find the right link, and
download it to your machine. And then if it's if
it's music, then you just transferred over to your listening device.
If it's a book, you just transferred over your reading
device or printed out. But then we'll read what we're
(10:38):
reaching the age where you would just get the cat drawing.
Uh that just the computer assisted drawing for that particular
object that miniatures say, transfer that to your machine and
then print it out in your printer, and then you
have the little device and you have it basically free,
and then just the cost of printing it out with
the plastic in your printer. But the thing that Alex
Castile argues in this article is that that's not the
(11:00):
real danger to companies like uh like Games Workshop. It's
not the idea that everyone can print their own Games
Workshop figures. It's that everyone will soon have the ability
to not only print but design their own figures. And
that doesn't mean necessary like every every Joe out there's
designing his own. But it means that instead of having
this one particular artistic vision you can print from, you
(11:21):
can print from anything. Is the democratization of design, and
and that is what he's arguing is the real, uh,
the real risk to object manufacturing companies like games Workshop, right,
because war gaming miniatures really represents the microcosm of what's
going on in the larger world what will go on, right,
because you're talking about MoMA pop shops that carry these,
(11:43):
we're talking about a community of people who gather around
this right, who trade ideas about it and their enthusiasm
about it. And so if you can just go ahead
and print what you want, then you remove, you know,
the storefront, you remove some of the community, although I
think some of that still alive via online. But it
does kind of give you an idea of what's going
(12:03):
to happen at the macro level when this becomes more
part of our life. This ability just to print off
objects I wanted to mention to this democratization of manufacturing,
of of creativity will also get you things like a
sad little Kno Reeves miniature if you want. Have you
seen that? I did not see. Yeah, it's a little
(12:26):
miniature and he kind of looks like the Thinker, although
he doesn't have his head in his hands like the
famous sculpture the Thinker does, but he he looks pretty downtrodden.
And you can just hang him on your monitor, really
your shelf at home. Yeah, I mean he drive because ultimately,
one of the questions that comes to mind with that
is how many people want that? How many people need that?
I don't know. I mean I have a connection to
(12:47):
him through the Matrix movies, but I don't feel like, oh,
I've got to I really have to have a sad
little Kano reeves. On the other hand, it makes me
kind of uh happy inside. I know that it exists,
but see that you have the three D printing is
gonna allow for an age where objects like this can
exist for basically one or two people. There's in a
(13:08):
sense it's mass produced, but without any of the overhead.
Like I think back to publishing, right, like how much
does a paperback book tend? The cost Like you're you're
talking what these days and so much of the costs
that are that are wound up in printing. I mean,
it's it's in the actual printing of the book, the
(13:29):
transportation of the book, the storage of the book, UM,
the the the the amount of the that's gonna go
to the company that's producing the book. And then there's
also just a little bit in there for the author
generally as well. UM. And so when you have an
e book, generally, when you're paying like say fourteen bucks
for an e book, you're paying um an inflated price
(13:50):
because you're you do not have to worry about for
the most part, where you're storing that e book about
transporting that e book. Yes, there's some digital costs and
entailed there, but you don't need a warehouse, you don't
need a fleet of trucks. So we're gonna see. And
already there are people are saying, you know, all these
these books, and not all of them, but certainly the
bigger name e books there over priced because they're still
priced as if they were physical books. But they're immediate,
(14:13):
so you're paying for that as well. Yeah, yeah, let's see. See,
but we're going to see a similar thing than with objects,
where people are going to going to realize, hey, actually
I shouldn't have to pay as much for this thing
because it doesn't really exist in space until I make
it exist in space on my end or at the
local three D printing chaosk right. Well, and when the
technology becomes so cheap and ubiquitous that it's just another option,
(14:36):
you know, you can either you can get this as
an add on, you can customize something. UM. I also
wonder about, you know, the arbiters of taste out there,
those people who say, like, this is the thing you
should buy, and you know, I'm knowledgeable about it because
I'm the design expert. Um. You know, when as soon
as you get more democracy and design, some of that
will fall away. Now you know, what are the implications
(14:58):
of that? Who knows yet? Um does that mean that,
you know, bad design is going to rule the world.
Probably not? Probably not because for the most part, well
this is arguable, but bad literature doesn't rule the world.
Bad art doesn't rule the world, Bad music doesn't rule
the world. That of course, the the Internet allows for
there to be a lot more bad art and literature
at your fingertips, because it's kind of I mean often
(15:20):
people talk about is the age of the amateur because
everything then anybody can publish a book on the internet
if they just write something and then find out where
to publish, and anyone can get some music up on
SoundCloud or on band camp or something. Um, and then
we can see a similar thing with design. But we
were talking about this the other day. To what extent
(15:40):
then do we have to worry about it becoming like MySpace?
Because my space, uh, for those of you old enough
to remember, with the pre Facebook social media page, and
unlike Facebook, where you're only allowed to do so much
through the design, my space just let you do whatever
you wanted to do. The design, which meant that you
had friends. When you went to their MySpace page, it
is completely unreadable. They would use just an obscene collection
(16:04):
of colors that would be sparkle fonts and gifts and
music playing in the background and videos and in your
machine would lock up and catch on fire just trying
to look at their page because it was when there's
when there's a democracy of design like that and people
can do whatever they want, Uh, there's some bad things
that are gonna happen. So so yeah, do do we
end up in a situation where there's just we're just
(16:25):
overflowing and just bad objects, bad sculpture, art, bad poorly
conceived figurines and amulets and what have you, and a
well discuss later clothing items, because ultimately we're talking about
all manner of things that exists physically. And I can't
help but think about something like Pinterest, which is you
could say, a democracy and taste right or interests and
(16:47):
design is certainly one of those. And but although Pinterest
has done something very interesting, they have put a lot
of sort of protocols in place about how you upload
what you upload, in the quality of that so that
when you see it visually there's a cohesiveness to it.
That's the reason why I think pinterest works so well,
UM is that those images are all they all have
(17:07):
something that's um, that's tantilizing to the eye. And again
it's in really good quality. It's reproduced in good quality.
So you sort of wonder if you know, um and
this is this is stuff that we'll talk about more
in a second part of this podcast about the future,
but you sort of wonder if companies will begin to
take that on, if say, like Amazon says, you can
(17:29):
now have a customization option via three D printing. Yeah,
and customization is going to be huge because we've talked
about you know that I can I can make new
things that I want, but but we'll also have the
ability to tweak things slightly. Like one of the big
things that that comes to mind instantly is uh is ergonomics.
You know, the idea that something will you know, fits
(17:50):
in the hand and and and works with your body correctly, right,
be it to say, just to be a keyboard or
some sort of handheld device or of course clothing. But
the idea three D printing is that every time you
you make, every time you bring the object into the
real world. After you you take that CAD file and
and transfer that into an actual object, you have the
(18:11):
ability to customize it to the individual, which means color,
which means making it um that the right side for
their particular hand, left hand, right hand situations, actual clothing sizes, etcetera.
All right, we're gonna take a quick break, but when
we get back, we are going to talk about what
Dieta von Tees, guns and gamers have in common. All right,
(18:32):
we're back. We're talking about three D printing, which you know,
on the surface is just a word that you've see
in a lot of headlines on the Internet, along with
some sort of weird photo of something being printed with
something with a thing that looks kind of like a
crazy futuristic of slushy machine. But we're also talking about
the what is essentially the the unholy gateway through which
(18:53):
the Internet can take physical form and destroy the world.
It's the it is the mouth by which the Internet
may vomit into the real world involvement, the sentiments of
plastic upon us. That is the future. Everything that is
it is that is thought off on the internet, you know,
because on the Internet we have a democracy of ideas,
and imagine all of that to take physical reality and
(19:14):
and and then you can imagine all of the best
and worst case scenarios they're in. All right, well, before
we start prognosticating about the future, let's start talking about
what we have currently available or what has been put
out there by three D printers, because it's pretty interesting.
You had mentioned ergonomics and the ability to customize. Well,
it turns out that in University of war Wick, uh
(19:38):
some researchers they are created a simple and inexpensive conductive
plastic composite that can be used to produce electronic devices. Okay,
so what does all of that mean. Well, that means
that gamers could have a really cool controller that is
ergonomically fit to their hands that they could print out. Now,
I think that if you're a gamer. If you're not
a gamer, that probably is like so what, But I
(20:00):
think if you spend a significant amount of time, um,
you know, playing games, then this is really actually very
cool thing because the ability to customize that means that
you probably can get that, you know, shave off that
one of a second to do whatever it is that
you're doing in the game, blast the enemy, you know, etcetera.
(20:22):
Really it would change your life. It could, it could.
The material that they are using is called carbo morph,
and then that's what enables users to lay down electronic
tracks and censors as part of a three D printed structure.
So very cool. And then of course we uh, there's
there's the realm of jewelry and dresses now already. Even
if you just go on on Etsy, you can find
(20:44):
some a lot of different opportunities to purchase three D
printed jewelry because right now the technology is easily at
the level where you could design and print jewelry. Like
if we really wanted to with our three D printer
here at work, we could design some jewelry, print it
out and you know it would look pretty good. I mean,
because the level of detail even by the thing we
have here is pretty phenomenal because it's layering. You know,
(21:07):
all these layers are are coming together, building it from
the ground up, and you can have a single piece
of plastic that has details inside it even that you
just would not be able to produce through through other
means of production. Right and right now that the jewelry
that is produced by three D printing is you know,
(21:28):
you can look at and say that was three D printing,
because there's a sort of style to it that is
being mandated by the materials that you can use right now,
and by some of the designs are the cat files
and most of them are not titanium or anything. Yeah,
sort of three D printing plastic that you see in
most of these operations, and awesome geometric shapes, very sculptural
(21:48):
looking that you can look at a piece and go off.
That was three D printed, right. But then there's the
world of dresses and and fine evening wear, which brings
us to Devonti's of course. New York designer Michael Schmidt.
An architect Francis Betoni created a three D print address
for the burlesque dancer Dita Bunties and it is so
(22:10):
I mean, it is beautiful to look at and it
is amazing, and I will say this like the dimensions
of her body are architecturally suited to this endeavor. Um.
It's a floor length n nylon goown and it was
made using the centering the SLS method, where the material
is built up in layers from plastic powder used together
with a laser. There are spirals based on the Golden
(22:33):
ratio that were applied to a computer rendering of her
body so that the garment fit her exactly. But not
only that. I mean, just again, if you're talking about
the golden ratio, then you're talking about someone with her proportions.
Then you can really see this design um and in
the Golden ratio at play. So that's a very cool thing. Now,
(22:54):
it's it's worth pointing out that the dress was not
printed as one piece or anything like that. It's they
designed it and essentially it's kind of like plastic chain
mail as a dress. It's the kind of dress that
Ditavanties would wear for a photo shoot, but not necessarily
the kind of dress that the average person or or
even Detavanties would say, where to dinner. I don't know
she's she might, but the effort, but yeah, seventeen pieces. Yeah,
(23:20):
so they print out each piece and then the pieces
are are are. Then you have to blow them off,
deal with any you know, dust or flat that needs
to be removed from it in some cases, and then
then I believe they applied a coating to them as well,
and then you have to stitch them. Yeah, but it
really is is a gorgeous piece and actually reminds me
of something that you would see him Blade Runner. Yeah,
(23:42):
I can't remember the actress who played the part, but
that I mean that was that's Yeah, it looks like
something Sean Young would wear, is that character? Yeah? Yeah,
she does look like a replicant in that photo for sure. Um,
but it but it is a great, great example of
something really really cool, really artistically sound. That is that
the pieces of it are generated through three D printing.
(24:05):
So a lot of the things we end up looking
at the current and near future applications of three D
printing involved printing out the pieces that are then assembled
to create the finished product. Yeah, like guns, right, because
this is and this is a very uh loaded no
pun intended topic here, because three D printing makes obtaining
(24:27):
an actual working gun really easy because you can get
gun kits, right, but there are certain parts of the
gun that cannot be supplied because you can't just put
together a semi automatic firearm. Although in the case of
three D printing, you can print the receiver of an
a R fifteen, and this is one of the most
restricted pieces of semi automatic firearms. Yeah, there are a
(24:48):
couple of different projects with the goal of creating working
three D printed firearms. One is called the Defense Distributed
and one is called have Blue and are both pretty
and it's it's really hard to get a I get
the sense that that both of these products or is
much about exploring and publicizing and causing and stirring public
(25:10):
conversation about about three D printing as opposed to actually like,
hey guys, let's make a bunch of guns like these
are not these are not an international terrorists here or anything,
but but it's it. But it is an interesting because
some people were worried about this. Some people will say,
what are we gonna do when we reached the point
where you can everyone can print out a gun at
their home, and uh, you know we we frequently find
(25:32):
that technology he gets here before legislation catches up with it,
before even culture catches up with it with it and
realizes how to handle it. Like right now, you could
probably print a pretty good shive or knife without question
with the three D printer. But they're talking about indeed
printing out all the pieces you would need to create
a gun, except for the bullets, of course, because the
(25:53):
chemical components there. Now the gun, the peture a gun
was tested and um, it was fired six times before
it fell apart. So of course people like, oh, it's
nothing to worry about then, and people are like, well
it is actually because this is just the beginnings of
this technology and this ability to to um Yeah, because
there's there work. Because I think the thing was that
basically the force of firing caused it to snap off
(26:16):
at the uh at either at the either at the
handle or at the stock. Yeah, And it was a
less powerful cartridge than is normally used. So that that
that also is for people who are saying proponents who
are saying oh it's fine, are saying, well, it's not
even the right cartridge. But I guess still they were
able to create a gun that fired, And to me
(26:37):
that that alone is impressive because you only how many
bullets do you need to cause irreparable damage? You know,
how many bullets do you need to I mean, you
don't even need a bullet to rob a bank, you know,
you could just you could have soap in the shape
of a gun. Right, So if you're able yeah duck,
I mean, if you're able to make a Saturday Night
special on your printer, then that is terrifying enough. Though
(27:00):
has pointed out in this article, we're looking at. Chris Anderson,
CEO of Three Robotics and former editor of Wired Us, said,
we don't have to worry about it in America because
right now it's far easier to just go to Walmart
and buy a gun as opposed to actually figuring out
to print one out at home. Yeah. I guess you
could say that gun legislation is sort of up in
the air anyway. Yeah. Uh, that being said, it's I
(27:21):
think it's nice to look out, you know, five ten
years from now totally because like I said, the technology
will be here. Inevitably, the technology will be here before
culture and law catches up with it. Alright, So, okay,
we're talking about guns, stresses, jewelry, um gamer controllers, what
about adult novelty items? Yes, now this was this was interesting.
(27:43):
There was a Vice article that dealt with this, and
we're not going to go into detail on this because
this is I passed the article off to Kristen Conger
over at the mom Stuff stuff. Remember told you, so,
maybe maybe they'll do something with it a little later on.
They can go a little more risque with their content.
But essentially we're talking about the same thing with any
of these three d bring the ability to pronount what
(28:04):
you want, um, with the the specifications that you desire
in the comfort of your own home. So take take
those factors and then apply that to the world of
adult novelty toys. You you know, I thought it was
interesting about the article is that they profiled several women
entrepreneurs in this field who were saying, you know, we
(28:25):
see that there's a lack and and there's this customization
available and um, the author, Kelly Burdette, she had a
really interesting take at the end of the article to
say that, um, there's there's kind of two directions here
going on. When you think about adult novelty toys and
you think about this technology. She says, there's a camp
(28:47):
that utilizes it to capture reality and provide normal people
with the opportunity to possess a hyper realistic object that
reflects their anatomy. And she says this is grounded in
the um this idea that there's something me meaningful and
possessing a physical extension of our bodies. And then she
says there's another camp that says that there's an emerging
(29:07):
open source design which reimagines what a sex object can
be like. For instance, Freud's Bust or Justin Bieber's because
there's a whole website already that has different CAB files
that you can download and print. And I'm sorry, I
just had to say that, but I did, uh because
I'm reading her quote. Um, but she says that these
(29:29):
are creative innovators and their newcomers to the sex industry.
She says they're pushing forward the vision of a sex
boyd for better or worse. Yeah, I thought that was
an interesting because that really, at the end of the day,
when you're talking about customization and you're talking about creating
your heart's desire, and you're talking about imagination, this really
does allow someone to take it to the degree and
(29:50):
in to re uh contextualized normalcy. Yeah. And and it
also comes down to who would I mean, some people, don't,
you know, have no qualms about walking into a shop
and purchasing such an item. Some people have no qualms
about having it show up on their their credit card
history or their Amazon Purjudes history or what have you.
But for some people like just printing it out, like
(30:11):
that's fewer steps removed from from either of those. So
I just see like that, I think the earlier dapters.
I know, I hate to say this because it sounds
like I'm trying to be perverted that I'm not, But
I really think it's going to probably be like seniors
because if you look at the data in terms of STDs,
is actually the senior population that this is growing and
(30:33):
which which points to this fact that people are are
living longer and their suxual appetites are not necessarily going away.
And yet um this is a group of people who
would be a little bit more modest or conservative. Yeah,
although I would really hate to sort of walk into
my grandmother printing one of these, it's it's still it's
a it's a lovely sign. Now, of course, this is
(30:55):
not an area where lives would be saved. The lives
maybe made a little app here in some cases. But
but three D printing is also something that that is
already improving the quality of life, and he's only going
to become more and more of a life saving technology
as the years roll on. For instance, of course, important
here is the idea of printing bones printing um U.
(31:18):
In one case, we saw a three D printed implant
that was used to replace of a man's skull uh
in a surgical scedure and this was this was pretty
recently UM this, So this is pretty fascinating because again
we're talking about a very personalized UM object. It has
to be customized to fit a particular skull, a particular
(31:40):
wound or replacement area. And and this is right up
three D printing alley like this. This fits it to
a t. Yeah. And what's really cool about that is
that the implant is made of polyether Keytone Keytone, and
it's a biocompatible polymer that won't interfere with X rays,
so you also get the material right here. Yeah. Yeah.
(32:02):
The manufacturer in this case was Oxford Performance Materials. FDA
approved just in the last month or so, and it's
estimated that five people in the US each month could
take advantage of this new procedure once it really gets
gets rolled out to everybody. Another current use is UM
It is used in the dental industry in the creation
(32:23):
of crowns, bridges and temporaries, and using this technology, even
long term temporaries can be created now, meaning that three
D printers can really print you new teeth. Yeah. I
mean this is when we start talking about trans humanism
in the ways that we can augment ourselves, our humanness,
or even keep just maintain our bodies in the style
(32:45):
of Aubrey de Gray. This is what we're talking about.
Only just go ahead and print some new teeth out. Yeah,
it's it's it's pretty amazing to think about just print
printing new teeth um and and and we're not limited
to teeth either. There recently we had well, this wasn't recently.
This was in two I was in eleven in the Netherlands,
but they were able to use a three D printed
jaw for an eighty three year old woman's face. She
(33:09):
she lost the jaw do some some bone infection and
the implant. It was really incredible because it's it has
articulated joints, and it has all these uh these porous
areas that are there to promote muscle attachment and then
grooves to direct and the regrowth of nerves and veins.
So it's not just what's amazing about this is when
(33:29):
you know, we're not just talking about producing a rough
facsimile of the jaw, like just a piece of plastic
or metal or what have you that we just shove
in there, but a piece that works with flesh, that
that that becomes a part of the body in a
way that that that that other optics just cannot. Yeah.
And of course that uh actually is pointing towards like
(33:51):
future future when we are able to get a little
bit more nuanced and complex with what we can do
now in terms of printing human tissue and actually a
print organs. We'll talk more about that in part two. Yeah,
and I should also add the jaw in this case.
This was the example that was printed using titanium powder
that's been heated and fused by a laser. But I
(34:12):
cannot but think what if they had done that with
the de Devantes's dress. That would have been kind of cool.
Titanium bulletproof. You just can't stop thinking about the dress.
It's pretty cool dress. It is cool. Um. Alright, So
the end all be all is a printer that can
actually print out its own parts. Yes, is this happening? Yeah?
(34:33):
I mean, well is that? My My understanding is that
there is a three D printer where they say, hey,
these are the parts made to make this printer. Here
the cat files go at it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a
company called rep Rap and they have a three D
printer and they they have open source to say like
here are the parts. Um, so it allows anyone to
to share the fruits of their three D printing. It's
(34:55):
pretty phenomenal. I mean you would have to stretch, it
would be a stretch to say that is self and
it is self rep cating technology. Uh it is not yet. Yeah,
no more than say a Xerox machine is self replicating
because you can take the blue front prints for a
Xerox machine and copy them through a Xerox machine. But
it's still it's still pretty phenomenal. It's sort of is
a foreshadowing things to come when we reach the the
(35:15):
an age when we have self replicate self. It is
foreshadowing of an age to come when we have self
replicating technology everywhere. You know what happens from that When
we get there, then then we have the singularity, then
we have all right, So that's probably a pretty good
place for SUSTA. We will pick up with part two
in the next episode. Yeah, and for the time being, though,
(35:37):
I want you to think about this. What do you
think is is the biggest threat posed by three D
printing Because we don't have any problem going going negative.
Here is the is the three DP is three D
printing more liable to bury us under a mountain of
ridiculous junk that we've printed out. Sad little Kiana Reeves,
savittle Kiano Reeves justin Bieber adult novel The Ivan Items.
(35:59):
I mean, every random toy or figure or amulet or
thing that we just happen to see. Are we gonna
be buried under the vomit of the Internet? Or is
the threat more UH coming from UH singularity, from self
replicating machines later on, or or from everyone to be
aiming able to print out a Saturday Night Special in
their in their basement. Or is the threat gonna be
(36:22):
just poor design taking over and just our infrastructure collapses
under it. I don't know that there is the humanity Savior?
Is it? Will it allow us to live until over
five years? It reminds me of the old song. I
don't care if that rains or freezes, as long as
I've got my plastic Jesus setting on the dashboard of
my car. You know, plastic Savior, all right? Okay, So
(36:45):
if you want to chat with us, if you want
to share something with us, shoot us a link, what
have you. You can find us on Facebook and you
can find us on Tumbler. We are stuff to Blow
your Mind on both of those, and we also have
a Twitter feed where we go by the handle blow
the Mind, and you can also drop us a line
at blew the Mind at Discovery dot com. For more
(37:08):
on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff
Works dot com.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to stuff to Blow
your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Tegli.
And recently we talked about objects. We talked about the
world of objects, we live in, the way we become
attached to different objects. But another huge part of that is,
(00:24):
of course, how do we create objects, How do objects
enter our world for us to relate to them. Also, um,
this idea that you know, our ability to make objects easily,
which we talked about being one of the hallmarks of
the twentieth century and perhaps the reason for an uptick
and collecting things and hoarding. Um, you know that this
(00:44):
idea of putting our hands on something easily is the
reason for our object fetishism. So of course we look
at something like three D printing and we begin to
extrapolate the future and the future of our collection of
objects and our making of objects, right, because I mean,
one of the big things about creating obvious this of course,
manufacturing the ability to make objects that are the same um.
(01:08):
And this is important to varying degrees. I mean, just
on a very on an aesthetic level, there's like an amulant,
you like, then somebody is probably pouring using a mold
to pour those amulets up to make identical ambulance via manufacturing.
If you're having something that requires precise parts in it,
then you need all the parts to be the same
so that you can mass produce that item, be at
(01:29):
a gun, an automobile or whatever. I mean. Obviously, manufacturing
is is crucial to our modern object feel technological world.
Let's how you say amulants, like like in the World
of Wizards, and really it's sort of a niche market.
Well yeah, but I mean still, I mean they're ammulets,
(01:50):
as we discussed in the objects pocasts. They're ammulets in
the sense of something magical or religious that I might buy,
say an amulant market somewhere like in in Bangkok or something.
But then there's, of course, there is jewelry, jewelry that
is molded, jewelry that is all the same um action figures,
et cetera, bits of art that are mass produced. Okay, yeah,
So I think what you're getting at here is that
(02:11):
we are now at a turning point in mass production,
which is actually now in a more customized realm thanks
to three D printing, and three D printing has been
around for about twenty years. But we're at a point
technologically where we can really take this, or the industry
can really take this and do something with it um
in a very significant way. Yeah, because earlier on it
(02:32):
was more expensive three D printing. It was more of
a more about just creating prototypes. But we're already in
an age where like we have a three D printer.
There is a three D printer here at how stuff
works that we purchased for about six hundred bucks, and
we can print out not anything, but a surprising variety
of small plastic things can be printed out. So everyone
has seen three D printing. I mean, it's it's it
(02:53):
doesn't really do us any good, just waste a lot
of time discussing what it is. But but essentially we're
talking about additive manufacturing as opposed to subtractive manufacturing. Subtractive
manufacturing means I have, say a sheet of metal, or
I have a block of wood, and I look at
it and I and I know the object I want
(03:15):
to produce is inside of that. So if it's in
the block of wood, then I have to carve it down,
or I have to have an assembly line that carves
it down. If it's in a sheet of metal, then
I have to have a press that that punches that
that particular piece out of the sheet metal or if
it or it could be a sheet of wood, and
you're using, you know, some sort of mechanical saw device
to create the part that you need out of that wood.
(03:38):
So I'm taking a hole and reducing it to the
part I need or to the thing I need, and
then we have additive manufacturing. And this means that there
is no large piece that I'm cutting cutting things down from.
I'm not whittling something out of a log. I'm starting
from the very tiniest debt and building up. Yeah. But
I think it is so cool about that is that
you're taking the sculpting process and which you would normally
(04:01):
do in manufacturing, and you're sort of abstracting it into
a CAD file which then does the sculpting for you. Um,
So as you say you're you're not taking away, you're
sort of depositing layer upon layer. And I like to
think of it in terms of an ink jet printer, right,
because that's something everybody is familiar with you've got your
(04:23):
ink that is deposited when the printer goes back and
forth and back and forth on a piece of paper. Well,
three D printing is similar, except that instead of just
going back and forth and back and forth, it can
go forward and backwards and up and down, and that
allows you to get a good spread of depositing whatever
sort of polymer plastic that you have, so or rather
(04:45):
than having ink, you have this plastic. And it's this
sculpting process, this layer upon layer, and in traditional three
D printing so far, when I talk about the layers,
i'm talking about the thickness of about a sheet of paper.
Of various types of three D printers, of course, they're
the ones that just essentially are printing with with a
with a heated plastic than cools. Uh. And then you
(05:09):
have even more you have crazier versions that are using
say they're using metal, they're using other other substances, curing
them with lasers or ultraviolet lights. Sometimes there's two different
types of materials that are coming together and chemically curing
and a single one. So there's there's there's a lot
going on not only the physical level, but also sometimes
at the chemical level. UM it's it's some pretty fascinating stuff.
(05:31):
The one we have here that you will be able
to see in some videos. It's just a simple um
heated plastic situation though. Yeah, and that's the direct three
D printing that you just referenced um So that's going
in multiple layers of material over the same surface. And then,
as you mentioned to, there's bind or three D printing,
and that is light direct three D printing. It uses
injent nozzles to apply liquid and then form each new layer.
(05:55):
But under unlike direct printing, binder printing uses two separate
materials that come together to form each printed layer. It's
quicker and you can use more colors and materials. And
then there's the photo polymerization, and this is a three
D printing technology where you have the drops of liquid
plastic and they are exposed to that laser beam of
(06:17):
ultra violet light and s l s. This is a
really interesting one that has used a lot. It's called
centering and it relies on a laser to melt a
flame retardant plastic powder, which then solidifies to form and
printed layer. Okay, we're gonna talk a little bit more
about that in terms of a certain dress that a
certain burlesque queen war. Um. But that is awesome because
(06:38):
it really does give you the flexibility and the strength
of materials to create these objects. Yeah, and there's that.
And another one we're going to get to also involves
the same technique since except that using a titanium powder
and the laser hits the powder fuses it together into
one little bit of titanium. But it's not a dress.
You'll find out what it is later. It's not a
(06:58):
bulletproof dress now. Um. But all of this is really
cool and it's very important because I mean it really
has implications in nearly every corner of our existence. I mean,
not only can you dream up and make whatever you
want from a CAD file, but three D printing really
will be incorporated into everything you touch. Um, you know,
from the airplane you board to the medicine you consume.
(07:21):
And we'll talk more about this, we'll talk more about
the current applications in the future applications. But I just
wanted to point this out that this is not just
some sort of like oh cool, I would love to
have this in my home. It's going to be like
the next thing that early adopters are looking at in
terms of technology, it really is going to be a
game changer and how we live and how we consume. Yeah,
(07:41):
and I think one of the cooler examples I was
running across in part because it cascades over to some
of my hobbies, but I think it also serves as
a good example was an article called Warhammer at war
how Home three D printers are disrupting miniature gaming by
Alex Castle. And this was an article from from January,
and he was taking a look at miniature war gaming.
(08:04):
If you're not familiar with this, this of course is
the idea that you're playing like a role playing game
or a military strategy game on a tabletop and you
have little miniatures to represent individuals or individual forces. Now,
of course you could use just a little cardboard cutout.
You could use a piece of paper with a number.
But as we all know, it gets us more into
a game. If we have an object that we can
(08:24):
we can identify with more, it looks more like the
thing it is, It looks interesting, so we attached to
it more. In Warhammer miniatures and most minute a lot
of miniature gamings anyway. Anyway, um, you'll buy the piece
unpainted and or unassembled, so you're there's also that ikea
factor level. I was going to say that that I
did it, and there's a sense of pride, right yeah,
(08:45):
So you get it in the mail, it's like, oh,
it looks really cool, and then I actually painted it,
and I might have painted it really well. Some people
out there paint these things to within an inch of
their life. Um. Other people you know, not so well,
but still they did it, so they have even more
personal attachment to it. Now to get a fine resin
model kit like this, you can spend some you know,
uppards of a single figure like that's smaller than your pinky. Um.
(09:11):
I am guilty of this at times as well, because
it's just if you want something that's that fine a quality,
there aren't that many people putting it out, and then
you have to pay their prices for it. So into
three D printing, So suddenly we have a situation where
people have the ability to lo and behold print small
little miniatures in um pretty awesome degree of detail, not
(09:33):
quite up to the detail of these risen resin molded
kits that you can buy for twenty to fifty dollars,
but still decent, decent quality. So the article really dealt with,
first of all, the question of how does this affect
the bottom line for a company like Games Workshop, who
puts out these models and and their whole business line
is selling more and more of these models to hobbyous
(09:55):
because we're fast approaching the age where someone could instead
I mean right now, if you want to steal a
bunch of these things, you would have to physically steal
them from a store or off the back of a truck,
or if you were really elaborate, you would get them
and create your own mold of them and start manufacturing themselves.
But there's a lot of work involved in that. But
three D printers see this fast approaching me the age
(10:16):
where it would be equivalent to to stealing music or
a movie. If we want to steal music or you know,
an album, then you just need to go to the
right slum on the internet, find the right link, and
download it to your machine. And then if it's if
it's music, then you just transferred over to your listening device.
If it's a book, you just transferred over your reading
device or printed out. But then we'll read what we're
(10:38):
reaching the age where you would just get the cat drawing.
Uh that just the computer assisted drawing for that particular
object that miniatures say, transfer that to your machine and
then print it out in your printer, and then you
have the little device and you have it basically free,
and then just the cost of printing it out with
the plastic in your printer. But the thing that Alex
Castile argues in this article is that that's not the
(11:00):
real danger to companies like uh like Games Workshop. It's
not the idea that everyone can print their own Games
Workshop figures. It's that everyone will soon have the ability
to not only print but design their own figures. And
that doesn't mean necessary like every every Joe out there's
designing his own. But it means that instead of having
this one particular artistic vision you can print from, you
(11:21):
can print from anything. Is the democratization of design, and
and that is what he's arguing is the real, uh,
the real risk to object manufacturing companies like games Workshop, right,
because war gaming miniatures really represents the microcosm of what's
going on in the larger world what will go on, right,
because you're talking about MoMA pop shops that carry these,
(11:43):
we're talking about a community of people who gather around
this right, who trade ideas about it and their enthusiasm
about it. And so if you can just go ahead
and print what you want, then you remove, you know,
the storefront, you remove some of the community, although I
think some of that still alive via online. But it
does kind of give you an idea of what's going
(12:03):
to happen at the macro level when this becomes more
part of our life. This ability just to print off
objects I wanted to mention to this democratization of manufacturing,
of of creativity will also get you things like a
sad little Kno Reeves miniature if you want. Have you
seen that? I did not see. Yeah, it's a little
(12:26):
miniature and he kind of looks like the Thinker, although
he doesn't have his head in his hands like the
famous sculpture the Thinker does, but he he looks pretty downtrodden.
And you can just hang him on your monitor, really
your shelf at home. Yeah, I mean he drive because ultimately,
one of the questions that comes to mind with that
is how many people want that? How many people need that?
I don't know. I mean I have a connection to
(12:47):
him through the Matrix movies, but I don't feel like, oh,
I've got to I really have to have a sad
little Kano reeves. On the other hand, it makes me
kind of uh happy inside. I know that it exists,
but see that you have the three D printing is
gonna allow for an age where objects like this can
exist for basically one or two people. There's in a
(13:08):
sense it's mass produced, but without any of the overhead.
Like I think back to publishing, right, like how much
does a paperback book tend? The cost Like you're you're
talking what these days and so much of the costs
that are that are wound up in printing. I mean,
it's it's in the actual printing of the book, the
(13:29):
transportation of the book, the storage of the book, UM,
the the the the amount of the that's gonna go
to the company that's producing the book. And then there's
also just a little bit in there for the author
generally as well. UM. And so when you have an
e book, generally, when you're paying like say fourteen bucks
for an e book, you're paying um an inflated price
(13:50):
because you're you do not have to worry about for
the most part, where you're storing that e book about
transporting that e book. Yes, there's some digital costs and
entailed there, but you don't need a warehouse, you don't
need a fleet of trucks. So we're gonna see. And
already there are people are saying, you know, all these
these books, and not all of them, but certainly the
bigger name e books there over priced because they're still
priced as if they were physical books. But they're immediate,
(14:13):
so you're paying for that as well. Yeah, yeah, let's see. See,
but we're going to see a similar thing than with objects,
where people are going to going to realize, hey, actually
I shouldn't have to pay as much for this thing
because it doesn't really exist in space until I make
it exist in space on my end or at the
local three D printing chaosk right. Well, and when the
technology becomes so cheap and ubiquitous that it's just another option,
(14:36):
you know, you can either you can get this as
an add on, you can customize something. UM. I also
wonder about, you know, the arbiters of taste out there,
those people who say, like, this is the thing you
should buy, and you know, I'm knowledgeable about it because
I'm the design expert. Um. You know, when as soon
as you get more democracy and design, some of that
will fall away. Now you know, what are the implications
(14:58):
of that? Who knows yet? Um does that mean that,
you know, bad design is going to rule the world.
Probably not? Probably not because for the most part, well
this is arguable, but bad literature doesn't rule the world.
Bad art doesn't rule the world, Bad music doesn't rule
the world. That of course, the the Internet allows for
there to be a lot more bad art and literature
at your fingertips, because it's kind of I mean often
(15:20):
people talk about is the age of the amateur because
everything then anybody can publish a book on the internet
if they just write something and then find out where
to publish, and anyone can get some music up on
SoundCloud or on band camp or something. Um, and then
we can see a similar thing with design. But we
were talking about this the other day. To what extent
(15:40):
then do we have to worry about it becoming like MySpace?
Because my space, uh, for those of you old enough
to remember, with the pre Facebook social media page, and
unlike Facebook, where you're only allowed to do so much
through the design, my space just let you do whatever
you wanted to do. The design, which meant that you
had friends. When you went to their MySpace page, it
is completely unreadable. They would use just an obscene collection
(16:04):
of colors that would be sparkle fonts and gifts and
music playing in the background and videos and in your
machine would lock up and catch on fire just trying
to look at their page because it was when there's
when there's a democracy of design like that and people
can do whatever they want, Uh, there's some bad things
that are gonna happen. So so yeah, do do we
end up in a situation where there's just we're just
(16:25):
overflowing and just bad objects, bad sculpture, art, bad poorly
conceived figurines and amulets and what have you, and a
well discuss later clothing items, because ultimately we're talking about
all manner of things that exists physically. And I can't
help but think about something like Pinterest, which is you
could say, a democracy and taste right or interests and
(16:47):
design is certainly one of those. And but although Pinterest
has done something very interesting, they have put a lot
of sort of protocols in place about how you upload
what you upload, in the quality of that so that
when you see it visually there's a cohesiveness to it.
That's the reason why I think pinterest works so well,
UM is that those images are all they all have
(17:07):
something that's um, that's tantilizing to the eye. And again
it's in really good quality. It's reproduced in good quality.
So you sort of wonder if you know, um and
this is this is stuff that we'll talk about more
in a second part of this podcast about the future,
but you sort of wonder if companies will begin to
take that on, if say, like Amazon says, you can
(17:29):
now have a customization option via three D printing. Yeah,
and customization is going to be huge because we've talked
about you know that I can I can make new
things that I want, but but we'll also have the
ability to tweak things slightly. Like one of the big
things that that comes to mind instantly is uh is ergonomics.
You know, the idea that something will you know, fits
(17:50):
in the hand and and and works with your body correctly, right,
be it to say, just to be a keyboard or
some sort of handheld device or of course clothing. But
the idea three D printing is that every time you
you make, every time you bring the object into the
real world. After you you take that CAD file and
and transfer that into an actual object, you have the
(18:11):
ability to customize it to the individual, which means color,
which means making it um that the right side for
their particular hand, left hand, right hand situations, actual clothing sizes, etcetera.
All right, we're gonna take a quick break, but when
we get back, we are going to talk about what
Dieta von Tees, guns and gamers have in common. All right,
(18:32):
we're back. We're talking about three D printing, which you know,
on the surface is just a word that you've see
in a lot of headlines on the Internet, along with
some sort of weird photo of something being printed with
something with a thing that looks kind of like a
crazy futuristic of slushy machine. But we're also talking about
the what is essentially the the unholy gateway through which
(18:53):
the Internet can take physical form and destroy the world.
It's the it is the mouth by which the Internet
may vomit into the real world involvement, the sentiments of
plastic upon us. That is the future. Everything that is
it is that is thought off on the internet, you know,
because on the Internet we have a democracy of ideas,
and imagine all of that to take physical reality and
(19:14):
and and then you can imagine all of the best
and worst case scenarios they're in. All right, well, before
we start prognosticating about the future, let's start talking about
what we have currently available or what has been put
out there by three D printers, because it's pretty interesting.
You had mentioned ergonomics and the ability to customize. Well,
it turns out that in University of war Wick, uh
(19:38):
some researchers they are created a simple and inexpensive conductive
plastic composite that can be used to produce electronic devices. Okay,
so what does all of that mean. Well, that means
that gamers could have a really cool controller that is
ergonomically fit to their hands that they could print out. Now,
I think that if you're a gamer. If you're not
a gamer, that probably is like so what, But I
(20:00):
think if you spend a significant amount of time, um,
you know, playing games, then this is really actually very
cool thing because the ability to customize that means that
you probably can get that, you know, shave off that
one of a second to do whatever it is that
you're doing in the game, blast the enemy, you know, etcetera.
(20:22):
Really it would change your life. It could, it could.
The material that they are using is called carbo morph,
and then that's what enables users to lay down electronic
tracks and censors as part of a three D printed structure.
So very cool. And then of course we uh, there's
there's the realm of jewelry and dresses now already. Even
if you just go on on Etsy, you can find
(20:44):
some a lot of different opportunities to purchase three D
printed jewelry because right now the technology is easily at
the level where you could design and print jewelry. Like
if we really wanted to with our three D printer
here at work, we could design some jewelry, print it
out and you know it would look pretty good. I mean,
because the level of detail even by the thing we
have here is pretty phenomenal because it's layering. You know,
(21:07):
all these layers are are coming together, building it from
the ground up, and you can have a single piece
of plastic that has details inside it even that you
just would not be able to produce through through other
means of production. Right and right now that the jewelry
that is produced by three D printing is you know,
(21:28):
you can look at and say that was three D printing,
because there's a sort of style to it that is
being mandated by the materials that you can use right now,
and by some of the designs are the cat files
and most of them are not titanium or anything. Yeah,
sort of three D printing plastic that you see in
most of these operations, and awesome geometric shapes, very sculptural
(21:48):
looking that you can look at a piece and go off.
That was three D printed, right. But then there's the
world of dresses and and fine evening wear, which brings
us to Devonti's of course. New York designer Michael Schmidt.
An architect Francis Betoni created a three D print address
for the burlesque dancer Dita Bunties and it is so
(22:10):
I mean, it is beautiful to look at and it
is amazing, and I will say this like the dimensions
of her body are architecturally suited to this endeavor. Um.
It's a floor length n nylon goown and it was
made using the centering the SLS method, where the material
is built up in layers from plastic powder used together
with a laser. There are spirals based on the Golden
(22:33):
ratio that were applied to a computer rendering of her
body so that the garment fit her exactly. But not
only that. I mean, just again, if you're talking about
the golden ratio, then you're talking about someone with her proportions.
Then you can really see this design um and in
the Golden ratio at play. So that's a very cool thing. Now,
(22:54):
it's it's worth pointing out that the dress was not
printed as one piece or anything like that. It's they
designed it and essentially it's kind of like plastic chain
mail as a dress. It's the kind of dress that
Ditavanties would wear for a photo shoot, but not necessarily
the kind of dress that the average person or or
even Detavanties would say, where to dinner. I don't know
she's she might, but the effort, but yeah, seventeen pieces. Yeah,
(23:20):
so they print out each piece and then the pieces
are are are. Then you have to blow them off,
deal with any you know, dust or flat that needs
to be removed from it in some cases, and then
then I believe they applied a coating to them as well,
and then you have to stitch them. Yeah, but it
really is is a gorgeous piece and actually reminds me
of something that you would see him Blade Runner. Yeah,
(23:42):
I can't remember the actress who played the part, but
that I mean that was that's Yeah, it looks like
something Sean Young would wear, is that character? Yeah? Yeah,
she does look like a replicant in that photo for sure. Um,
but it but it is a great, great example of
something really really cool, really artistically sound. That is that
the pieces of it are generated through three D printing.
(24:05):
So a lot of the things we end up looking
at the current and near future applications of three D
printing involved printing out the pieces that are then assembled
to create the finished product. Yeah, like guns, right, because
this is and this is a very uh loaded no
pun intended topic here, because three D printing makes obtaining
(24:27):
an actual working gun really easy because you can get
gun kits, right, but there are certain parts of the
gun that cannot be supplied because you can't just put
together a semi automatic firearm. Although in the case of
three D printing, you can print the receiver of an
a R fifteen, and this is one of the most
restricted pieces of semi automatic firearms. Yeah, there are a
(24:48):
couple of different projects with the goal of creating working
three D printed firearms. One is called the Defense Distributed
and one is called have Blue and are both pretty
and it's it's really hard to get a I get
the sense that that both of these products or is
much about exploring and publicizing and causing and stirring public
(25:10):
conversation about about three D printing as opposed to actually like,
hey guys, let's make a bunch of guns like these
are not these are not an international terrorists here or anything,
but but it's it. But it is an interesting because
some people were worried about this. Some people will say,
what are we gonna do when we reached the point
where you can everyone can print out a gun at
their home, and uh, you know we we frequently find
(25:32):
that technology he gets here before legislation catches up with it,
before even culture catches up with it with it and
realizes how to handle it. Like right now, you could
probably print a pretty good shive or knife without question
with the three D printer. But they're talking about indeed
printing out all the pieces you would need to create
a gun, except for the bullets, of course, because the
(25:53):
chemical components there. Now the gun, the peture a gun
was tested and um, it was fired six times before
it fell apart. So of course people like, oh, it's
nothing to worry about then, and people are like, well
it is actually because this is just the beginnings of
this technology and this ability to to um Yeah, because
there's there work. Because I think the thing was that
basically the force of firing caused it to snap off
(26:16):
at the uh at either at the either at the
handle or at the stock. Yeah, And it was a
less powerful cartridge than is normally used. So that that
that also is for people who are saying proponents who
are saying oh it's fine, are saying, well, it's not
even the right cartridge. But I guess still they were
able to create a gun that fired, And to me
(26:37):
that that alone is impressive because you only how many
bullets do you need to cause irreparable damage? You know,
how many bullets do you need to I mean, you
don't even need a bullet to rob a bank, you know,
you could just you could have soap in the shape
of a gun. Right, So if you're able yeah duck,
I mean, if you're able to make a Saturday Night
special on your printer, then that is terrifying enough. Though
(27:00):
has pointed out in this article, we're looking at. Chris Anderson,
CEO of Three Robotics and former editor of Wired Us, said,
we don't have to worry about it in America because
right now it's far easier to just go to Walmart
and buy a gun as opposed to actually figuring out
to print one out at home. Yeah. I guess you
could say that gun legislation is sort of up in
the air anyway. Yeah. Uh, that being said, it's I
(27:21):
think it's nice to look out, you know, five ten
years from now totally because like I said, the technology
will be here. Inevitably, the technology will be here before
culture and law catches up with it. Alright, So, okay,
we're talking about guns, stresses, jewelry, um gamer controllers, what
about adult novelty items? Yes, now this was this was interesting.
(27:43):
There was a Vice article that dealt with this, and
we're not going to go into detail on this because
this is I passed the article off to Kristen Conger
over at the mom Stuff stuff. Remember told you, so,
maybe maybe they'll do something with it a little later on.
They can go a little more risque with their content.
But essentially we're talking about the same thing with any
of these three d bring the ability to pronount what
(28:04):
you want, um, with the the specifications that you desire
in the comfort of your own home. So take take
those factors and then apply that to the world of
adult novelty toys. You you know, I thought it was
interesting about the article is that they profiled several women
entrepreneurs in this field who were saying, you know, we
(28:25):
see that there's a lack and and there's this customization
available and um, the author, Kelly Burdette, she had a
really interesting take at the end of the article to
say that, um, there's there's kind of two directions here
going on. When you think about adult novelty toys and
you think about this technology. She says, there's a camp
(28:47):
that utilizes it to capture reality and provide normal people
with the opportunity to possess a hyper realistic object that
reflects their anatomy. And she says this is grounded in
the um this idea that there's something me meaningful and
possessing a physical extension of our bodies. And then she
says there's another camp that says that there's an emerging
(29:07):
open source design which reimagines what a sex object can
be like. For instance, Freud's Bust or Justin Bieber's because
there's a whole website already that has different CAB files
that you can download and print. And I'm sorry, I
just had to say that, but I did, uh because
I'm reading her quote. Um, but she says that these
(29:29):
are creative innovators and their newcomers to the sex industry.
She says they're pushing forward the vision of a sex
boyd for better or worse. Yeah, I thought that was
an interesting because that really, at the end of the day,
when you're talking about customization and you're talking about creating
your heart's desire, and you're talking about imagination, this really
does allow someone to take it to the degree and
(29:50):
in to re uh contextualized normalcy. Yeah. And and it
also comes down to who would I mean, some people, don't,
you know, have no qualms about walking into a shop
and purchasing such an item. Some people have no qualms
about having it show up on their their credit card
history or their Amazon Purjudes history or what have you.
But for some people like just printing it out, like
(30:11):
that's fewer steps removed from from either of those. So
I just see like that, I think the earlier dapters.
I know, I hate to say this because it sounds
like I'm trying to be perverted that I'm not, But
I really think it's going to probably be like seniors
because if you look at the data in terms of STDs,
is actually the senior population that this is growing and
(30:33):
which which points to this fact that people are are
living longer and their suxual appetites are not necessarily going away.
And yet um this is a group of people who
would be a little bit more modest or conservative. Yeah,
although I would really hate to sort of walk into
my grandmother printing one of these, it's it's still it's
a it's a lovely sign. Now, of course, this is
(30:55):
not an area where lives would be saved. The lives
maybe made a little app here in some cases. But
but three D printing is also something that that is
already improving the quality of life, and he's only going
to become more and more of a life saving technology
as the years roll on. For instance, of course, important
here is the idea of printing bones printing um U.
(31:18):
In one case, we saw a three D printed implant
that was used to replace of a man's skull uh
in a surgical scedure and this was this was pretty
recently UM this, So this is pretty fascinating because again
we're talking about a very personalized UM object. It has
to be customized to fit a particular skull, a particular
(31:40):
wound or replacement area. And and this is right up
three D printing alley like this. This fits it to
a t. Yeah. And what's really cool about that is
that the implant is made of polyether Keytone Keytone, and
it's a biocompatible polymer that won't interfere with X rays,
so you also get the material right here. Yeah. Yeah.
(32:02):
The manufacturer in this case was Oxford Performance Materials. FDA
approved just in the last month or so, and it's
estimated that five people in the US each month could
take advantage of this new procedure once it really gets
gets rolled out to everybody. Another current use is UM
It is used in the dental industry in the creation
(32:23):
of crowns, bridges and temporaries, and using this technology, even
long term temporaries can be created now, meaning that three
D printers can really print you new teeth. Yeah. I
mean this is when we start talking about trans humanism
in the ways that we can augment ourselves, our humanness,
or even keep just maintain our bodies in the style
(32:45):
of Aubrey de Gray. This is what we're talking about.
Only just go ahead and print some new teeth out. Yeah,
it's it's it's pretty amazing to think about just print
printing new teeth um and and and we're not limited
to teeth either. There recently we had well, this wasn't recently.
This was in two I was in eleven in the Netherlands,
but they were able to use a three D printed
jaw for an eighty three year old woman's face. She
(33:09):
she lost the jaw do some some bone infection and
the implant. It was really incredible because it's it has
articulated joints, and it has all these uh these porous
areas that are there to promote muscle attachment and then
grooves to direct and the regrowth of nerves and veins.
So it's not just what's amazing about this is when
(33:29):
you know, we're not just talking about producing a rough
facsimile of the jaw, like just a piece of plastic
or metal or what have you that we just shove
in there, but a piece that works with flesh, that
that that becomes a part of the body in a
way that that that that other optics just cannot. Yeah.
And of course that uh actually is pointing towards like
(33:51):
future future when we are able to get a little
bit more nuanced and complex with what we can do
now in terms of printing human tissue and actually a
print organs. We'll talk more about that in part two. Yeah,
and I should also add the jaw in this case.
This was the example that was printed using titanium powder
that's been heated and fused by a laser. But I
(34:12):
cannot but think what if they had done that with
the de Devantes's dress. That would have been kind of cool.
Titanium bulletproof. You just can't stop thinking about the dress.
It's pretty cool dress. It is cool. Um. Alright, So
the end all be all is a printer that can
actually print out its own parts. Yes, is this happening? Yeah?
(34:33):
I mean, well is that? My My understanding is that
there is a three D printer where they say, hey,
these are the parts made to make this printer. Here
the cat files go at it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a
company called rep Rap and they have a three D
printer and they they have open source to say like
here are the parts. Um, so it allows anyone to
to share the fruits of their three D printing. It's
(34:55):
pretty phenomenal. I mean you would have to stretch, it
would be a stretch to say that is self and
it is self rep cating technology. Uh it is not yet. Yeah,
no more than say a Xerox machine is self replicating
because you can take the blue front prints for a
Xerox machine and copy them through a Xerox machine. But
it's still it's still pretty phenomenal. It's sort of is
a foreshadowing things to come when we reach the the
(35:15):
an age when we have self replicate self. It is
foreshadowing of an age to come when we have self
replicating technology everywhere. You know what happens from that When
we get there, then then we have the singularity, then
we have all right, So that's probably a pretty good
place for SUSTA. We will pick up with part two
in the next episode. Yeah, and for the time being, though,
(35:37):
I want you to think about this. What do you
think is is the biggest threat posed by three D
printing Because we don't have any problem going going negative.
Here is the is the three DP is three D
printing more liable to bury us under a mountain of
ridiculous junk that we've printed out. Sad little Kiana Reeves,
savittle Kiano Reeves justin Bieber adult novel The Ivan Items.
(35:59):
I mean, every random toy or figure or amulet or
thing that we just happen to see. Are we gonna
be buried under the vomit of the Internet? Or is
the threat more UH coming from UH singularity, from self
replicating machines later on, or or from everyone to be
aiming able to print out a Saturday Night Special in
their in their basement. Or is the threat gonna be
(36:22):
just poor design taking over and just our infrastructure collapses
under it. I don't know that there is the humanity Savior?
Is it? Will it allow us to live until over
five years? It reminds me of the old song. I
don't care if that rains or freezes, as long as
I've got my plastic Jesus setting on the dashboard of
my car. You know, plastic Savior, all right? Okay, So
(36:45):
if you want to chat with us, if you want
to share something with us, shoot us a link, what
have you. You can find us on Facebook and you
can find us on Tumbler. We are stuff to Blow
your Mind on both of those, and we also have
a Twitter feed where we go by the handle blow
the Mind, and you can also drop us a line
at blew the Mind at Discovery dot com. For more
(37:08):
on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff
Works dot com.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Lamb
Joe McCormick
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.