When our day-to-days are spent fixating on what we need and what’s next, how cool is it to designate a day exclusively to being grateful for what we have?
Rhetorical question: It’s really cool.
Here are just a few reasons 3D printing gives us something to be grateful for:
We’re in the future.
We’ve gotten used to having the Internet in our pockets over the last few years, and now we’re at a point where we can weightlessly and instantly send coffee mugs, pairs of shoes, watches, belts, and even car parts across geographies and time zones, all with digital data. Now. Today. We have this technology because our peers and colleagues dreamed it up and made it real. With access to a 3D printer, we can push a button tonight and wake up to our imagination in 3D. Experts and novices, young and old: 3D printing is here and happening.
Unique problems get unique solutions
3D printing is powering some much-talked-about breakthroughs in engineering, as well as some incredible innovations in medicine. Personalized surgical kits and patient-specific devices are a file and a click away from reality. Thousands upon thousands of medical and dental solutions are already being printed, and this is distinct from the current explorations of bio-printing with human tissues. Prosthetics and braces can be custom fit to the patient and 3D printed to match existing or pre-existing anatomies. Not only did a man 3D print a prosthetic hand for his son, but an animal enthusiast used 3D printing to create a prosthetic for a duck with a malformed foot. The possibilities are endless, with impacts both great and small, and everything is scalable to what matters to you.
Complexity is free
Striped shirts cost more than solids. You want your latte with soy? That’s an extra 50 cents. We have options all around us that better suit our style or flavor, but even the smallest personalization tends to come at a cost. Not so with 3D printing! A 3D printer relies on your file to create your design, and it follows that design layer by layer. A 3D printer can make sugar sculptures just as easily as sugar cubes. If it’s free, why not have fun with it? It’s that kind of choice that makes this technology so sweet.
It’s nice to our planet
3D printing creates by building up one layer at a time, attaching materials only where they are needed. This means that by its very nature, 3D printing is a waste-free technology. What’s more, many of the materials used can be recycled or composted. And because 3D printing relies on weightless, shapeless, instantaneously shareable 3D printing files, tremendous amounts of inventory and cross-continental, cross-oceanic transport can be cut down, making a big dent in the carbon footprint of making and manufacturing. About time, too!
It gives us something to look forward to
Wrapping one’s head around 3D printing can be more or less difficult, depending on how new it is to you. For those dwindling beings that have yet to come around to email (if such beings still exist), 3D printing is nothing short of voodoo. For those that grow up with it, though? Designing for 3D and thinking in 3D terms is set to evolve into a new literacy the world over, and kids are the ultimate boundary pushers. As “Why not?” replaces “Why?”, we are sure to be awed and delighted with what the future holds.
by Saskia via Cubify
