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.
3D printing is already shaking our age-old notions of what can and can't be made.
Silicon Valley needs partners. You can't do edited manufacturing just in the Valley. Why not have the DNA of manufacturing but combine it with the digital world?
3D printing has digitized the entire manufacturing process.
This century is going to be linked with the virtual world. Maybe in the days to come we will have virtual malls and digital manufacturing. Change is coming fast and we need our urban areas to keep pace with these changes.
We wanted people to 3-D-print anything, not just more 3-D printers.
You can go from creating the design on your iPad to making the object on your MakerBot.
Craft meets the machine in rapid fabrication. We can generate craft with the help of technology.
We started MakerBot in 2009 and made a conscious decision to educate people with the possibilities they could do with 3D printing and share with people what is possible.
The opportunity ahead of us in terms of transforming how we design and build, how we manufacture, is even greater than some of the product innovation that we're going to bring to the table.
Even a small village in the middle of Africa with a 3D printer will have access to any good it can download. The world of the 'Star Trek' replicator is not far away.
Some countries were able to turn their manufacturing operations into advanced technology areas. South Korea is a great example of this, and manufacturing there is done using advanced technological methods.
We have to prove that digital manufacturing is inclusive. Then, the true narrative will emerge: Welcome, robots. You'll help us. But humans are still our future.
