Re:Is Printing a Gun the Same as Buying a Gun?
by 0x12 on Tuesday September 20, 2011 @05:56PM
(#3019781)
If you haven't done so please read Singularity Sky by Charles Stross.
It's the kind of book that opens your eyes to the kind of change that you are talking about. I think that you are basically talking about a post-singularity society, that's how much change that would cause. As a result of that we can speculate about the changes but we will never ever be remotely ready for the real thing, if and when it hits.
The 0.0.1-pre-alpha of the cornucopia machine is not even close to the real thing in terms of effect, the one is a neat little machine that you can use to experiment with additive manufacturing rather than the usual subtractive methods, the other will change the world in ways we probably can not even predict.
Re:Is Printing a Gun the Same as Buying a Gun?
by nickpinkston on Wednesday September 21, 2011 @03:04AM
(#3021078)
As long as AK47 variants are available in my local sporting goods store for $300, I think we've got larger leaks to plug if we're trying to play collect-the-guns.
Re:Is Printing a Gun the Same as Buying a Gun?
by nickpinkston on Wednesday September 21, 2011 @10:29AM
(#3022106)
You don't need to - anyone who takes apart the gun will see how that works. You actually just remove one part and it's full-auto. However, books to make seers and whole weapons have been available through Paladin Publications at gun shows since the '90s and are now fully scanned and torrentable.
This is the interesting discussion to have, and the one I am having. And even if the weapon itself is not ready in minutes, it's easy to imagine a world in which printing the open source AK-47 is as easy as: Visit website, search for AK-47, click print on first result, eventually refill relevant cartridges. It may only pop out hours later, but it'll still be a different world than the one we live in.
I completely disagree with anelson's characterization of the difficulty; I could make "printing a web page" look as difficult if I spelled out all the steps ("purchase paper for printer, insert paper into printer..."), but that's not reflective of the real difficulty.
Remember, Thingiverse is not version 7.2.3-final. It's 0.0.1-pre-alpha. We are not at the endgame of this technology, we are at the very, very, very beginning, and even this discussion about guns is merely one high-profile example of the sorts of questions we're going to have to grapple with when the full power of software is unleashed into the physical world.