The Future by Al Gore

the stockpiling of components and parts, the large amount of working capital required for such stockpiling, the profligate waste of materials, and of coursethe expense of employing large numbers of people. Enthusiasts also contend that 3D printing often requires only 10 percent of the rawmaterial that is used in the mass production process,not to mention a small fraction of the energy costs. It continues and accelerates a longer-term trend toward “dematerialization” of manufactured goods—a trend that has already kept the total tonnage of global goods constant over the past half century,even as their value has increased more than threefold.
    In addition, the requirement for standardizing the size and shape of products made in mass production leads to a “one size fits all” approach that isunsatisfactory for many kinds of specialized products. Mass production also requires the centralization of manufacturing facilities and the consequent transportation costs fordelivery of parts to the factory and finished products to distant markets. By contrast, 3D printing offersthe promise of transmitting the digital information that embodies the design and blueprint foreach product to widely dispersed 3D printers located in all relevant markets.
    Neil Hopkinson, senior lecturer in the Additive Manufacturing Research Group at Loughborough University, said, “It could make offshore manufacturing half way round the world far less cost effective than doing it at home, if users can get the part they need printed off just round the corner at a 3D print shop on the high street. Rather than stockpile spare parts and components in locations all over the world, the designs could be costlessly stored in virtual computerwarehouses waiting to be printed locally when required.”
    At its current stage of development, 3D printing focuses on relatively small products, but as the technique is steadily improved, specialized 3D printers for larger parts and products will soon be available. One company based in Los Angeles, Contour Crafting, has already built a huge 3D printer that travels on a tractor-trailer to a construction site andprints an entire house in only twenty hours (doors and windows not included)! In addition, while the 3D printers now available have production runs of one item up to,in some cases, 1,000 items, experts predict that within the next few years these machines will be capable ofturning out hundreds of thousands of identical parts and products.
    There are many questions yet to be answered about the treatment of intellectual property in a 3D printing era. The three-dimensional design will make up the lion’s share of the value in a 3D printing economy, but copyright and patent law were developed without the anticipation of this technology and will have to be modified to account for the new emerging reality. In general, “useful” physical objects oftendo not have protection against replication under copyright laws.
    Although there are skeptics who question how fast this new technology will mature, engineers and technologists in theUnited States, China, and Europe are working hard to exploit its potential. Its early use inprinting prosthetics and other devices with medical applications is gaining momentum rapidly.Inexpensive 3D printers have already found their way into the hobbyist market at prices as low as $1,000. Carl Bass, the CEO of Autodesk, which has invested in 3D printing, said in 2012, “Some people see it as a niche market. They claim that it can’t possibly scale. But this is a trend, not a fad.Something seismic is going on.” Someadvocates of more widespread gun ownership are promoting the3D printing of guns as a way to circumvent regulations on gun sales. Opponents have expressed concern that any suchguns used in crimes could be easily melted down to avoid any effort by law enforcement authorities to use the guns as evidence.
    T HE WAVE OF automation that is contributing to the outsourcing and robosourcing