Need a house? Print one. Need a wrench? Print one! Need a human organ? just PRINT ONE. The future is a wild place, y’all. With the advent of 3D printers, human conception of material manufacturing has been revolutionized like nothing we’ve ever seen before (think industrial revolution meets 2001 Space Odyssey then multiply that by 10). Ultimately, we’ve created something that’s given us the power to create whatever we want, whenever we want it. A power previously held by time, effort, and god itself. An Instant Manifestation technique no yogi could ever fathom. That’s right. We’re all wizards now, harry– and the possibilities are endless! How ever you decide to look at this, one reality always seems to bubble to the surface: a future where 3D printing changes everything– and I mean Everything— as we know it. Black Mirror style? You might ask, and the answer is, yeah, well, duh.
Now, I could go into a long-winded rant about a future with 3D printing in the palm of our hands changing the way we live our lives ‘cuz like imagine one day you need a hammer but instead of getting dressed and going out to the store, you just look-up the wrench-file on homedepot.com and print it from there, meanwhile you’re fixing-up a sandwich– pantless– while the hammer’s manifesting into your living room and by the time you’re done eating lunch, the hammer’s done printing, too, but then you remember you forgot you needed a box of nails and you laugh to yourself remembering a world w/o 3D printing, where you’da have to’ve gotten dressed again, which you didn’t even have to in the first place, just to head-back out to the store and buy more (like a loser), but instead you just grab the nail-file online and print it while you go poop and pesto! by the time you hear the ding of the freshly printed box of nails, you’re wiping your ass thinking– what am I saying, this is the future– a robotic arm (there we go) will be wiping your ass (much better) while you’re thinking “man, my 3D printer sucks, I really gotta get a new model.” And then in which case, you’ll probably just 3D print yourself a newer… yeah.
Anyway, I’ll spare you the details. This future ain’t exactly here yet but you best believe it’s comin’ within our lifetime. My primary concern is that if we don’t get every civilization on the ‘same page’ before this technology takes hold, then 3D printing may very well be the demise of our civilized world. The baiser de la mort, if you will. I mean, imagine the power these printers hold w/o a strong moral handling. You know, like how guns are bad enough? Okay, now imagine granting any individual the potential to print themselves as many automatic rifles as they want, and w/ endless bullets to boot. You see the problem here? If we don’t fix our humanity first, then what we’re really doing here is just giving the worst-o-us the potential to print their own nuclear weapons as if they happen to have the access and resources to do it. KEY WORD: if*. But that’s a mighty ‘If’. And sure, we can argue how expensive printer ink can be, so imagine 3D toner. Nonetheless, while we’re over here re-imagining a future w/ limitless resources, it is vital that we acknowledge what we already know about human nature. We know humans have a divergent class that foam at the mouth w/ the idea of their very own Matrix Weapon Vault (*cough, cough* TRUMPERS *cough, cough*). But I rest my case there. I realize these are among some of the same fears that mighta dawned upon the world when the Internet was born. Humans adapt; trial & error. We just gotta try our best not to think about the kooks outside our window w/ the signs reading ‘end is nigh‘.
So, what’s the most realistic angle on all this? Let me put it to you this way. You know how fire changed the course of humanity? The wheel? What about the lightbulb? Yeah. We ain’t talkin’ sliced-bread here, people. We are talkin’ PRINTING MOTHAFUCKIN’ HUMAN ORGANS… I digress. The world’s spinning on fire and A.I. is on the rise, along w/ twin-born realities, Augmented and Virtual. The World Wide Web? Getting bigger. We can only know one thing for certain: our Future will demand an evolution of society and the moral transcendence of our spiritual essence in order for us to have any semblance of a hopeful survival. Humanity has no choice to bare the weight of this responsibility, it is upon us already. It cannot be ignored. The real question is, will Humanity wield this god-power of instant creation to manifest heaven, or hell on earth? Most likely, a little of both.
Here’s a slice of what Paradise could looks like:
The Daily Howl 