3D Printing Future Timeline

[JamesTuthill]

2018: Filaments, especially the plastics have dropped in price close to 75% as competition heats up.

My hope is that by this point in time, we will be making our own recycled plastic filament for free.
Plastic water bottles, plastic laundry detergent bottles, etc.

[hpearson]

Can people please do this survey for our class and share the survey as well. We are trying to get at least 100 response. One link is for people who have a 3D printer and the other is for people who don't have a 3D printer.
Have Printer https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LN3GZ8D
Don't have printer https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LYB69B6
make sure to click on the correct link.

[3LawsSafe]

"If, by some miracle, a prophet could describe the future exactly as it would happen, his predictions would sound so absurd, so far-fetched, that everyone would laugh him to scorn." -Arthur C. Clarke.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -Arthur C. Clarke

Both of these quotes describe 3D printing almost exactly, specifically the second. I look forward to a printer printing a printer. If I have enough solar panels (which are printable), and enough material, 1 printer can become 2, 2 can become 4, 4 can become 8, and in 30 doublings, you'd have over 1 billion printers, enough for nearly every home in the world. The standard of living worldwide will skyrocket, the costs of living will plummet, and a golden age may well begin.

[ajperez]

Great timeline, as well as the replies.
Regarding food 3D printing, the first point is that its widespread adoption would render supermarkets (if not restaurants) obsolete, not just give them a new source of food products.
Also, food would not be printed out of thin air, we would need alternative protein sources to stop relying on slaughtering animals (Beyond Meat approach). Or, edible flesh could be produced via cell culture/3D printing (Modern Meadow's approach).
Thanks for enticing the discussion.

I follow food 3D printing at @foodfabbing

[Teran]

Cool story bro :P Would love for it to be like this

[Axebaneblade]

Now THIS is a good topic. The predictions you've come up with could end up being shockingly close, or way off the mark, but I do believe that the world will change quite a bit due to 3D printing, and also Artificial Intelligence. This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately too, so this was a great read!! I've actually been designing my own 3D printed miniatures game that takes place in the future, and the backstory for the game will itself include 3D printing! Right now there are 3D printing technologies that can make much stronger titanium than the current SLS method, because the process actually raises the metal powder above the melting point, instead of below it as with SLS. Also, the cost of the powder is apparently going to be able to drop because of recent methods for making titanium powder that is closer to the ore itself, meaning much cheaper to produce because less modification is needed.

I'm thinking that possibly by the year 2080, 3D printing and AI technologies could be to the point that an army of AI ULV (Unmanned Land Vehicles) could be created in a matter of days/hours instead of months/years to produce and train conventional military forces. Perhaps we could even have remote-controlled vehicles on other planets/moons/asteroids also, where it is too dangerous to have humans living, but instead we could control unmanned vehicles from orbit in a space station or other ship. This gets around the delay issues of controlling a mars probe from earth for instance. If you instead control it from orbit around mars, it would be a similar delay as a satellite above earth, right? So much closer to live control. Perhaps this could be a viable way to mine asteroids and moons/planets?

3D printing technology is already getting faster too, so given decades of progress, there could likely be exponential increases in the speed of the process. At that point, it IS practical and justified to pay more in material/energy/maintenance to 3D print for mass production, IF you can afford the extra costs. If it were only 5 times faster it could be worth it, and by 2080 it could be even more.

Oh, and one more idea, in response to the idea that "3D printing filament price will always be directly tied to oil costs" is not necessarily true, is it? PLA is becoming pretty widely used, and it is a resin made from corn, right? Plus, it doesn't emit the awful fumes that melted ABS plastic does. Also, there is the possibility of recycling plastic containers to make filament, cutting costs. So the filament price doesn't necessarily have be directly tied to oil prices.

[morgue427]

A working mouse liver within 2 years is a stretch I think and human ones within 4 and full scale 4years after is all but impossible tale longer than that for the govt to decide it is safe and minutes after it does someone will be making fakes with knock off cells

[maxwell]

2016 is coming, it may come true.

[amberperez476]

3D Printing market is in the progressive phase of its life cycle. It was valued at $2,811.8 million in 2014, and is anticipated to reach $8,683.7 million by 2020. 3D Printing market is growing at a CAGR of 21% during 2015 -2020.

[amberperez476]

I think, the factor s that are driving the 3D printing market are efficient use of raw materials and ability to build customized product. And the result is, market is anticipated to reach reach $8,683.7 million by 2020. Get more information @ https://goo.gl/6sKL7G