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Imagine if rather than downloading software, you could download products. I'm talking real objects like furniture, tools, and even electrical goods. In other words, a multitude of man made objects which would usually be produced in a factory somewhere in China. Well, it might sound crazy, but that's exactly what the developers of the "self-replicating rapid prototyper" or "RepRap" are dreaming of.
The first obvious question is, how the hell is this supposed to work? In short, a specially adapted 3D printer will be able to "print-out" the blueprints of the objects that you download. RepRap's motto is "Wealth without money" and that's the exciting aim of the project. It embodies the essence of freeware because after all, that's exactly what all the freeware we download everyday is - free products that add value to your life. The developers point out that, through printers we already have the power to start our own printing press. The RepRap project simply aims to take that concept a step further.
If you think this sounds like science fiction so far then bear in mind that such 3D printers have already been around in factories for 30 years. The problem is they're prohibitively expensive for general consumers costing around €20,000. However, the developers of RepRap claim that their printer can be built yourself for a measly €500. Even better, if you make one, you can download the blueprint, print out the components and build another one for free!
RepRap is the brainchild of Adrian Bowyer at the University of Bath in the UK who embodies the open source spirit saying that he doesn't want any individual, corporation or organization to make money from this. RepRap is being entirely developed under the GNU open source license by hundreds of members worldwide. As you can see from the demo video below, the current possibilities aren't exactly stunning with the creation of plastic coat hangers seemingly the showcase of its capabilities so far. However, more impressive is RepRap 1's ability to clone itself making basic plastic components. The team are working on RepRap 2 which will be able to make electrical components and circuit boards creating a whole new world of possibilities.
The Guardian say RepRap has been referred to as the invention that will "bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment." The prospects are indeed tantalizing as Bowyer says, "If people can make anything themselves, what's the point in going to the shops?" However, it sounds like a corporate nightmare and if it ever takes-off, it will be met by serious opposition. As Michael Hart, founder of free book repository Project Gutenberg says, "In 30 years replicators are going to be able to make things out of all sorts of stuff. Somewhere along this line the intellectual property people are going to come in and say 'No we don't want you all printing out Ferraris and we don't want you printing out pizzas'." However, the same could be said of music, film and software downloading. Just because you can download something, doesn't automatically mean that people will stop going out to buy them and the industries will die.
So forget iPhone app stores and software downloads. RepRap is the only download you may ever need!
RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.
Wow... I wonder if in the future you could print actual items, example laptops, PCs, hardwares etc lol
HA, HA, AND AMEN. THE BOOK OF REVELATION, OPEN YOUR BIBLE AND LOOK, READ AND UNDERSTAND. GOD/JESUS HATES BABYLON, HE DESPISES MERCHANTS AND THE SYSTEMS THEY CREATE IN ORDER TO CONTROL AND MAN-IPULATE, MERCHANT MANIPULATION OF HUMANITY DOES GO BACK TO SUMERIA/BABYLON, THE BIBLICAL, "TOWER OF BABYL", AT THE HELM "NIMROD", ALONG WITH HIS WHORE MOTHER, DOMINATE, CONTROL, MAN, MAN, MAN-IPULATE, SLAVES AND MASTERS, TOP MONKEY, SECURE AND INSURE THE MARKET AT ALL COST, LIE, STEAL, MURDER, ITS WHAT LATER BECAME KNOWN AND NAMED IN THE WORD "SATAN"... SUBJUGATE ALL HUMANS UNDER THE BOOTS OF NIMROD AND HIS MOTHER, ENSLAVE ALL FOR THE PURPOSES OF THE ELETIST JERKS... WE ALL HAVE ENTERTAINED NOTIONS OF REVOLUTION, "THE BEATLES" COVERED THAT QUESTION BETTER THAN ALL THE SOCIAL SCIENTIST WHO EVER LIVED, THEIR SONG "REVOLUTION" IS THE SUCCINCT, EPITOMIZED STATEMENT PERTAINING TO CONFRONTATION OF THE 'EVIL ONES' AND 'THEIR' SYSTEM... 'REP-RAP' IS RIGHT OUT OF 'REVOLUTION' BY THE BEATLES...IF YOU HAVE BLANKED OUT ON THE BEATLES SONG "REVOLUTION", YOU TUBE IT AND SHOUT "AMEN"..! JESUS DID COMMAND US TO BOW BEFORE NO MAN, NOT EVEN TO CALL OUR EARTHLY DAD "FATHER" FOR ONE IS "OUR FATHER" AND HE IS GOD ALONE, IE, "OUR FATHER"..! BEND YOUR KNEES TO NO POPE, PRIEST, PRESIDENT, KING, QUEEN, CORPORATE PRESIDENT, DOCTOR, LAWER, SHOW NO FEAR UNTO ANYTHING OR ANYONE..! "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS WITHIN YOU..!" ALL THE ANSWERS UNTO ALL THE QUESTIONS LAY DORMANT, SLEEPING WITHIN YOU... LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN WITH ME, LET THE FIRE START AND CONSUME THE ENTIRE GALAXY AND MORE, THE SINGLE SPARK WILL ENGULF THE ENTIRE FOREST IN FLAMES AND DESTROY IT... JESUS IS NOT RELIGION, JESUS IS YOU, ABOUT YOU, JESUS THE MAN IS A MAN, ARE YOU A MAN? "WITH GOD ALL, ALL, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE..!" ENTER REP-RAP, GOD BLESS ALL INVOLVED, GOD BLESS THE REVOLUTION OF "OPEN SOURCE", PRAISE GOD, BABYLON IS DOOMED TO FIRE, NIMROD AND HIS WHORE MOTHER ARE TERRORFIED, SOON THEY WILL BE NO MORE BUT DEAD ROTTING FLESH IN THEIR STINKING SELF MADE TOMBS, WE WILL NOT HAVE TO KILL THEM, THE CONTROL FREAKS, THE GLOBALIST, THE MERCHANTS OF BONDAGE, THE MAN, MAN, MANIPULATORS ARE DOOMED, DOOMED AS SATAN HIMSELF TO HELL FIRE... (READ THE BOOK OF ENOC CHAPTER 96..!} THAT WHICH IS TERMINAL IS TERMINAL, THAT WHICH IS ETERNAL IS ETERNAL, THE CHOSEN ARE THE CHOSEN AS ARE THOSE WHO ARE NOT, THEY ARE CHOSEN TO NOT BE AND THEY WILL NOT BE, THIS IS FINISHED NOW AND FOREVER... GOD HAS A NAME AND IT IS "I AM"..! "FOR I AM AS YOU ARE, YOU ARE AS I AM, BE THE I AM, BE AS I AM, BE GOD AS GOD IS NO WHERE ELSE OTHER THAN WITHIN YOU..!" YOUR MIND IS DIVINITY AND THE ONLY GOD LIVES IN YOUR PERSONAL BODY. YOU ARE ETERNAL, YOU ARE ETERNITY, THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE ARE WITHIN YOU SLEEPING, ALLOW THE SECRETS TO AWAKEN FROM THEIR SLEEP AND YOU WILL SHOUT,"WOW, GLORY, GLORY, AMEN, YES, GLORY HALLELUJAH..!" THE SINGULARITY FAST APPROACHES WHICH IS THE BASIS FOR THE SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST, THE MAINFRAME WILL BE DOWNLOADED FOLKS INTO THOSE WHO SHUN THE DARK SIDE, THE MYSTERY OF GOD WILL BE COMPLETED, CHRIST SHALL REIGN IN US AND THROUGH US AS THE SON'S OF GOD... DECEMBER 21-2012, TIME ENDS, DAYS SHALL BE NO MORE, THE BASTARDS WILL BE TERMINATED FOREVER, WILLIAM WALLACE WILL BE FULLY VINDICATED, (BRAVE HEART} THE LONG SHANKS OF HISTORY WILL BURN IN HELL FOREVER, AS WILLIAM WALLACE SHOUTED "FREEDOM" WITH HIS LIFE, FREEDOM WILL BE OURS FOREVER, THIS MESSAGE IS FOR WE THAT ARE THE VANGUARD OF WHAT IS THE TRUE NOW, THIS MESSAGE IS FOR WE THAT ARE "THE FUTURE"...! THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE CHRIST JESUS/YESHUA, THE SON'S AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CHURCH", THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE WORD "CHRISTIAN"... MOST "CHRISTIANS" ARE IDIOT BLOBS OF NOTHING BUT MEAT BORN TO ROT IN THE DIRT, MUSLIMS , HINDU'S, SEIKS, COMMUNIST, NAZI'S, ATHEIST, DEMOCRATS, REPUBLICANS, MATERIALIST ALL INCLUDED, MEAT BLOBS BORN TO ROT IN THE DIRT... CREATE SOMETHING, INVENT, DISCOVER, GIVE TO YOUR NEIGHBOR, LOOK INTO THE STARS AND PAST THEM, REDISCOVER NICOLA TESLA... GIVE TO THE HOMELESS, GIVE $50.OO TO A PAN HANDLER AND DON'T DO HIS INVENTORY, ADOPT A HOMELESS FAMILY, VISIT THE SICK, EVEN IF THEY ARE STRANGERS, GO TO A HOSPITAL AND VISIT THE SICK AND BUY THEM SOMETHING, A RADIO, BIBLE, CANDY, SLIPPERS, SOCKS, FLOWERS, ANYTHING... GET OUT OF YOUR PATHETIC, DISGUSTING BUBBLES WHILE YOU CAN FOR ALL BUBBLES ARE DESTINED TO BE BURST AND THAT HOUR FAST APPROACHES, THIS IS NOT UP FOR A VOTE, OPINION IS OF ZERO RELEVANCE..!
@Azman, RepRap 2, which is currently in development, will be able to print circuit boards and electronic components so the answer to your question is yes which has interesting implications for the computer industry. @Prophetsall, I'm glad you clearly share in the excitement over RepRap.
“If people can make anything themselves, what’s the point in going to the shops?” Hello? One would need the raw material to build the items he printed out. So, the client is still shopping, just not at the place he usually does.
This is all nonsense. I'm using 3d printers and CNC milling for prototyping and mold making. 3d printer material is very, very expensive, and fragile. I use this technology to make wax molds, but I have to coat it with resin, to remove porosity. And I don't produce iPods at home, it's metal casting for decorative purposes. I understand people at RepRap needs to call media attention, but they should not lie. RepRap machine is not self-replicating. This technology is decades away from producing "everything". And download an object and print it? Come on, who will model the object? This is real world, buddies, an object is not a mp3 or a video. If RepRap is "revolution", what about the programmable matter? And self-replicating nanobots/nanotechnology? Well, they all will change the world. Or maybe the world will change before these these technologies become practical.
@Chris, I think he means "going to the shops" as in the high street but as you say, wholesale raw materials providers would do a booming business supplying RepRap users although I'd hardly refer to them as "shops". @Akhenathon, I think RepRap is in its infancy still and as you can see from the demonstration video, producing a coat peg seemed to be the limits of its powers so far. However, they make little mention of how much the raw materials RepRap needs cost and it would be interesting to see just how much one peg really costs! I don't think the team pretend that RepRap is anywhere near being able to produce high volumes of consumer goods for a long time yet but I'm willing to believe that the machine replicated itself at least once - I think they would have run a big risk of discrediting themselves immediately by trying to lie about that so early on in it's evolution. As far self-replicating nanobots, I have no idea about them but I'm sure that they won't be downloadable like RepRap promises.
I am shamelessly borrowing from the RepRap project to build a construction set that will bring MORE high tech manufacturing into the low cost realm. I have followed the RepRap for a while and think its a great starting point, for myself, however, I wanted to have access to a broader range of materials to fabricate with, so I started the "CubeSpawn" project. the initial cube is a small (1/2 meter) 3-axis CNC mill but I'm planning to build several other cubes for vacuum forming small parts, a tool and head changer for the 3 axis mill, a 5 axis mill, a CMM (coordinate measuring machine) and other stuff as well. You can see it here, http://www.cubespawn.com feel free to email comments… info (at) cube spawn … ;-)