A few months ago a friend of mine from New Zealand started a new business called Idea Beans. I saw it on Facebook and because this friend of mine is very smart and clever, I had to check it out. She put up pics of very cool things she made on her new 3D printer. I had never heard of a 3D printer. These cool plastic objects came out of a printer? I had a hard time wrapping my head around the concept. I asked her about it and she posted a video showing the process. I still couldn’t grasp it. I followed her work for months now. It seemed plastic was put into a printer and an object comes out.
Then Sunday Morning did a segment on it and it was fascinating, but I still didn’t quite grasp it. Last week the morning news did a segment on it. Instead of loading plastic into the printer, they loaded human tissue in it and made a real ear for a little girl born without an ear. I was amazed. They also explained how regular printers move back and forth, but a 3D printer not only moves back and forth, but up and down and can create anything out of the material you load it with. Imagine. Someday these printers will make limbs and organs – anything anyone needs. This whole process, in the coming years, could change lives forever in amazing ways.
Today I saw another story on the morning news about a 3D printer. This story caused me to freeze in my thoughts. A guy made a gun on a 3D printer. They said it’s not illegal to make a gun on a 3D printer as long as it’s for personal use. Whoa. Talk about no gun control. Anybody with a 3D printer can make a gun. That didn’t set well with me. Then a chilling realization hit me. Anybody could make anything they wanted with a 3D printer. The possibilities are endless.
Is that a good thing?
And so, as another day goes by, this fascinating piece of technology gives me cause to pause, it can do a lot of good, but can it also do a lot of bad? And…I have written.
A few 3D printer projects created by Idea Beans:
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