3DTVwatcher has been reading up on all of the recent news about how 3D printing can affect the economy. We feel an obligation to comment.
Some have suggested that while 3D printing is still in its infancy it will grow up pretty soon. This means that today we are able to print out small chess figurines and toys, tomorrow this can be evolved to printing clothing, furniture, heck, buildings!
It has been argued that this will crazily affect the economy – factories closed down, jobs cut (no more need for seamstresses, builders or bricklayers), and everything substituted with humongous tridimensional printers which can create virtually anything from nothing.
It scares 3DTVwatcher to think about the potential advertising of the future: why wait 9 months, print a 3D baby now! Print yourself a new 3D face! Your dream house – printed in 3D and in 3 days!
While we shiver with fear about the tridimensional unknown, we don’t think that the economy will die at the hands of the 3D format. It will simply be changed and not necessarily for the worse. Someone’s got to operate those 3D printers, someone else has to design them, build them, advertise them, sell them, buy them, invest in them… it’s probably clear where we’re going with this.
Meanwhile, it’s important to embrace 3D printing and all the innovation it will bring; it’s better to take steps forward rather than go nowhere fast.