Startups are now creating specialized 3-D printers capable of producing everything from synthetic hamburgers to multi-story apartment buildings.
Similar to computer technology in the '60s, 3-D printing is a universal technology that has the potential to revolutionize our life by enabling individuals to design and manufacture things.
I'm an investor in MakerBot, which is a good example of the 'thingiverse'. The idea of applying collaboration and rapid iteration to things that we interact with and hold in our hands every day is super revolutionary.
I made physical objects because I know how to do something on the computer. That struck a chord with me: Most women of my generation have grown up with technology but lack the handmade creative skills of former generations. This is a big opportunity to fill that gap.
Our intention is that people use MakerBots to have a positive impact on the world.
The next episode of 3D printing will involve printing entirely new kinds of materials. Eventually we will print complete products - circuits, motors, and batteries already included. At that point, all bets are off.
3D printing is already shaking our age-old notions of what can and can't be made.
3D printing has digitized the entire manufacturing process.
If we could communicate at the speed of thought, we can augment our creativity with the low-level stuff that AI and robots and 3-D printers and fab labs and all that do.
We're now able to 3D print in 200 different materials, from titanium to rubber, plastic, glass, ceramic, leathers, and even chocolate.
In a biological system, the software builds its own hardware, but design is critical, and if you start with digital information, it has to be really accurate.
I've watched with amazement as Local Motors has pioneered a co-creation and micro-manufacturing model that has democratized the development and production of complex machines, effectively transforming consumer choice from supply-driven to demand-driven.
The 3D-printing technology has been developing at a very rapid pace.
Before I started MakerBot, I was creating cool stuff and sharing it with the Internet. That's how I knew all the folks at BoingBoing, at Engadget and Gizmodo.
Creating life at the speed of light is part of a new industrial revolution. Manufacturing will shift from centralised factories to a distributed, domestic manufacturing future, thanks to the rise of 3D printer technology.
We're on the brink of the next industrial revolution. Instead of buying things, you can make them on a printer. When you have a 3D printer, you can iterate more - what used to take months, now takes hours.
We wanted people to 3-D-print anything, not just more 3-D printers.
3D printing will massively reduce the cost of certain products as the cost of labor is removed.
How can we reinterpret 3-D printing in a way that suggests a new design language?
We have always moved with this approach of sharing and educating people with what they can unlock with 3D printing.
The combination of human skills with technology will always be at the root of any solution to the future of making clothes.
You can go from creating the design on your iPad to making the object on your MakerBot.
I can imagine an automotive designer or an industrial designer building a product in 3D, all in real-time. That's the way a lot of people are going to work in the future.
Craft meets the machine in rapid fabrication. We can generate craft with the help of technology.
When people have a MakerBot, they have a different mindset from everybody else who grew up as a consumer. Instead of thinking, 'I need to go buy that,' they first think, 'Do I need to go buy that? I could just MakerBot that.'
