What sci fi settings make use of '3D printers'?

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 1:12 pm

Well, other than star trek but that seems a little too advanced for what I'm getting at.

But things like this:

http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/0 ... d+printing

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 1:28 pm

"The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson has "matter compilers".

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:05 pm

Shadowrun has 3d printers that print shit out using this silica stuff with nano-chips mixed in.

Juton · Post by **Juton** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:12 pm

You don't ever see them but in Macross they have automated facilities that can build you anything from a toaster to a classic car.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:42 pm

The Shadowrun 3d printers are explicitly without any of the advantages or transformative power that 3d printers actually promise, so they are flatly disappointing and, I feel, "3d printers" in name only.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 2:53 pm

How so Surgo?
They let you build basically any item you want. Their only restriction is that the Corporations have massive DRM on most of their blue prints, but given you're a criminal/terrorist/h4x0r that's not REALLY an issue.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:03 pm

They are explicitly insanely expensive items and thus very rarely used for any form of manufacturing, with only the megarich having them, which is like the opposite of the whole promise of 3d printers.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:06 pm

Yes, and that's about patents, and megacorp control. They specifically SAY that. It's not that the 3d printers are expensive to make, it's that the people selling them are specifically under gun point to not make them affordable.

And, again, as a criminal you don't give a crap about that.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:07 pm

I don't remember them saying they were expensive for that reason, but I can't look it up to confirm or deny at the moment :-/ I will take your word for it I guess. I was always disappointed with Shadowrun 3d printers for that reason though -- they never seemed to think fully about what the implications of having them would be. They were just kind of...there, and never appeared outside of the section that introduced them.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:15 pm

page 130 Arsenal

In the chaos of Crash 2.0, a large number of patents and other technical plans were released into the public domain, sold off , or otherwise made available. While most of them were decades old and of no great use, one turned out to hold some great potential: desktop manufacturing, a generic term for a new technology that was becoming popular at the turn of the century, before it was bought and buried by the rising megacorporations in order to preserve their own preeminence in manufacturing.

However, while the megacorps were unable to put the genie back into the bottle, they did manage to stifl e any further growth in this technology, so the current forges made by contract manufacturers (usually just one step ahead of the megacorps) are rather primitive, allowing only the production of very simple parts that are useful in modifying or repairing items, but lack the complexity necessary to make anything but the most basic of whole finished items.

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 3:47 pm

In the tv series Eureka, in season 5, episode 10, 11, and 12 they use a printer to print human bodies.

K · Post by K » Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:07 pm

Charles Stross's books tend to use 3-D printing. I can't remember the name, but one uses a "cornucopia machine" that basically makes whatever you want and hijinks ensue when one is dropped onto a planet.

Ian Banks' Culture novels basically use them all by default, but it's not terribly explicit. Culture starships basically can make anything.

The same goes for Alistair Reynolds' books. Starships basically manufacture stuff as a default.

Wesley Street · Post by **Wesley Street** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:10 pm

The Eclipse Phase RPG uses cornucopia machines. Restrictions are made based on the availability of raw materials, energy use, safety regulations and hypercorp DRM (if you're living in the Inner System).

Whatever · Post by **Whatever** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:14 pm

Transmetropolitan has "makers". Spider Jerusalem mostly uses his to make clothes, I think.

Josh_Kablack · Post by **Josh_Kablack** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:17 pm

Well as near as I can tell, 3-d Printing is not a more efficient process for mass production.

It's great for rapid prototyping where you make several forms for something and then test them to see which one works best - then you use casting or conventional forging to make a zillion of that one.

And it's great for making one-of-a-kind widgets, where it has a lower skill barrier than sculpting by hand and a massively lower cost barrier than using a CNC Milling Machine

But since we live in a society where common tooling and interchangable parts are the norm from the consumer side and the big profits are in mass producing on the producer side I'm really not sure that 3-d printing is having much of an effect on society at large.

And well, stories about revolutionary new technologies that were ignored outside of hobbyists and niche uses just aren't that compelling.

Surgo · Post by **Surgo** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 4:31 pm

The way I've seen it, it's less like "holy shit mass production wheeeee" (which is kind of silly, because we have pretty good means of mass production) and more like, anyone can now produce something in the same way anyone can upload something to Youtube.

K · Post by K » Thu Aug 09, 2012 5:29 pm

Josh_Kablack wrote:Well as near as I can tell, 3-d Printing is not a more efficient process for mass production.

3-D printing is more efficient whenever storage or time is an issue.

For example, the US Army has been developing a 3-D printing process to make tank parts because waiting months for tank parts to arrive at the front and having to store unused parts is really inefficient.

That being said, most of the potential uses for 3-D printing are in personal production and not mass production. The ability to produce personalized goods like custom equipment is far more exciting than producing a million widgets for sale.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:04 pm

This is just wild supposition, but I had always sort of assumed the military would be interested in some 3d printers because they have lot of equipment that could remain in service longer if it weren't for the fact that maintaining production on replacement parts for aging tech is a gigantic time and money sink.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:04 pm

K wrote: 3-D printing is more efficient whenever storage or time is an issue.

For example, the US Army has been developing a 3-D printing process to make tank parts because waiting months for tank parts to arrive at the front and having to store unused parts is really inefficient.

If that process is still in development, it's probably more accurate to say "is potentially more efficient" rather than "is more efficient".

K · Post by K » Thu Aug 09, 2012 6:45 pm

hogarth wrote:
K wrote: 3-D printing is more efficient whenever storage or time is an issue.

For example, the US Army has been developing a 3-D printing process to make tank parts because waiting months for tank parts to arrive at the front and having to store unused parts is really inefficient.
If that process is still in development, it's probably more accurate to say "is potentially more efficient" rather than "is more efficient".

They've been using three truck-mounted models for two years and are building more, so I'd guess that they find them to be useful because the project is being expanded. They've already printed out 100,000 parts.

Even SOCOM wants their own printer for their specialized equipment needs..

On an unrelated note, I think organ printing is the real revolutionary app for 3-D printing. Scientists have already printed out working bladders and wind pipes and I think livers, so the idea that we'll one day just replace worn-out organs is pretty awesome.

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 7:51 pm

K wrote:On an unrelated note, I think organ printing is the real revolutionary app for 3-D printing. Scientists have already printed out working bladders and wind pipes and I think livers, so the idea that we'll one day just replace worn-out organs is pretty awesome.

That makes me gain weird images of schoolgirls who print out new bodies for every schoolday to stay hip and fresh in some kind of weird future society

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 8:42 pm

K wrote:They've been using three truck-mounted models for two years and are building more, so I'd guess that they find them to be useful because the project is being expanded. They've already printed out 100,000 parts.

Cool!

Tumbling Down · Post by **Tumbling Down** » Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:28 pm

The Deus Ex verse, if it counts as a sci-fi setting. Majestic 12 and X51 both had 'Universal Constructors'.

erik · Post by **erik** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:48 am

K wrote:Charles Stross's books tend to use 3-D printing. I can't remember the name, but one uses a "cornucopia machine" that basically makes whatever you want and hijinks ensue when one is dropped onto a planet.

I think that one is Singularity Sky. There's tons of Cory Doctorow maker-stories as well.

Vebyast · Post by **Vebyast** » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:35 am

erik wrote:
K wrote:Charles Stross's books tend to use 3-D printing. I can't remember the name, but one uses a "cornucopia machine" that basically makes whatever you want and hijinks ensue when one is dropped onto a planet.
I think that one is Singularity Sky.

Yup, Singularity Sky. 3d printers are also a driving technology in the near-future universe of Rule 34, and I think you can guess what the application is....