Fair enough - if the study is ludicrous, I have no issue with that. But I’m absolutely sure this is an unstoppable progress. The tech will improve rapidly, multi-materials will become standard, and multi-handling of those materials - whatever will be needed to get the job done. There’ll be a spectrum of printers, from low-tech household for printing a new Barbie head, to high-tech do-it-all.
As for discrediting the idea - well, the longer the bankers stay away from all this, the better. Consumers will instantly buy the custom-built running sneaker for $10 rather than the ill-fitting and injury-inducing $90 pair.
We really, really aren’t that far off that kind of concept. Some marketing people and money people are drooling over the cash potential, but this will be such a tide they’ll simply be left standing if they try to over-manage it in the way the media companies tried to over-manage the introduction of digital. And look what happened to them.
Over the course of history there have been a number of discernible major technological advances (be it the replication of nuclear fission or the invention of reliable timepieces) that have changed history, and this is definitely one.
