Re:3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiF...
by Klathmon on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @01:04PM
(#15863298)
Maybe to you, but to me this is probably my favorite usage of this technology that I can easily come up with. In other words the way it will have the best impact on my day-to-day life (hell, if it stops the "run to the store for detergent" drives, it'll probably be better for the environment as well).
If this ever gets to the point where I can buy filament for it and print stuff myself, the first thing I'll be doing with it is hacking something together to order stuff as it runs out.
Just look at it from my perspective. To me it's like people saying they can use BLE for medical and industrial purposes, and everyone is shouting about how useless and anti-consumer it is...
That said, I think people - myself included - complain about this example usage because of all the uses one can come up in 30 seconds, this one is the least generally useful, and most ridiculous one, and this is the one that the authors decided to run their story with. For me, frankly, it's a bit pathetic.
It strongly reminds me of another example - BLE beacons. There are plenty of useful applications that are also obvious when you understand what it is, but what was that the companies (I won't name a particularly well-known brand from my area[0]) decided to run with? Pushing ads into peoples' phones when they're shopping.
It's as if people are purposefully trying to not use technology for good, and instead focus on the worst parts of our culture - greed, consumerism and exploiting others.
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[0] - There is also another, lesser-known BLE beacon brand in my area, which started their copy with industrial and medical uses. Well, after the success of the retail-oriented brand, they too decided to go with retail instead.