Helmut Melzer
"Everyone thought that home computers are a really cool thing, but only for real freaks. Good 20 years thought that. The 3D printer is doing similarly. Nobody prints a new kidney at the kitchen table. But that does not mean it's not possible. "- 2009 was Michael Curry's avid chief designer at Makerbot Industries, the startup that wanted to revolutionize the world. The ingenious idea of the founders Bre Pettis, Zach Hoeken and Adam Mayer: "We bring devices that had mainframe dimensions and were priceless on the desk." Instead of 200.000 dollars, the small machines should cost only 200 dollars.
With the miniaturization of the already invented by Chuck Hull (3D Systems), but mainly used for industrial purposes 3D printer, you wanted to follow in the footsteps of Steve Jobs. He had done the same with Apple, turned the then mainframe computer into small home computers. Now Makerbot CEO Bre Pettis wanted to become the new guru of the digital age. It did not work out: in the meantime, he and most of the others involved are all losing their jobs. Stratasys, the company that makes the big industrial 3D printers, just bought Makerbot - after all, a staggering 604 million dollars.
On the other hand, Max Lobovsky, who partnered with his partners David Cranor and Natan Linder on the world's largest crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, has chances of succeeding jobs. Within just 2011 days, their startup Formlabs raised a whopping $ 30 million dollars to develop a more advanced desktop 2,9D printer. But Lobovsky has other concerns right now: 3D Systems, the actual inventor of 3D printing, is suing for violating some of its 3 patents.
INFO: 3D printing
The inventor of 3D printing is US-American Chuck Hull of the company 3D Systems, who has already registered the first patent for 1986.
The technology revolution 3D printers work like this: A digital template is sent to an 3D printer, which produces an object layer by layer. A distinction must be made between several methods: Fused Deposition Modeling, for example, carries droplets of droplets of liquid plastic. The more mature stereolithography fuses resins or metals using lasers. In previous methods of 3D printing, only individual materials are used, Hewlett-Packard has 2014 3 XNUMX presented at the end of October, in which various liquid materials are combined.
3D printers are also already being tested for the production of dishes: 2014 wanted to acquire the start-up "Natural Machines" via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter 100.000 Dollar for the production of Foodini. The device should be able to create a variety of dishes, from filled ravioli to burgers and pizzas, while contributing to a healthy diet. Although only 80.000 dollars have come together, the food printer is yet to come on the market this year.
Most notable was the 3D print by US anarchist Cody Wilson, who produced 2014's Liberator, the first fully-printed firearm, and successfully tested it on camera. In many places, therefore, the printing of weapon parts in the 3D printer is prohibited. More enjoyable applications include the production of arm and leg prostheses with material costs of a few euros.
Prototype replicator
The announced technology revolution continues, however. But it's no longer about digital bits, it's about atoms. For a great role model for the 3D printer is the replicator from the SciFi series Star Trek: It makes it possible to produce any object previously recorded or programmed in its atomic structure. The technology revolution is not quite there yet, but 3D printers can already accomplish something unimaginable: They produce parts for vehicles and aviation, prostheses, complete firearms and even organs.
Consequences of the next technology revolution
Apart from ethical questions, the consequences of 3D printing are not foreseeable. In particular, economic structures could change completely. Shop? What for? Maybe in ten years' time everything will be printed out at home - with dire consequences for manufacturers, hauliers and all other sectors of the economy. But maybe this development is another step towards ecology? This too can bring the future: no overproduction, but everything on demand, also means sparing resources and possibly greatly reduced transport routes.
"3D printers will primarily be operated as" hubs "in the future. So as decentralized centers of new generation, where designers and producers meet. The likelihood is high that the 3D printing does not prevail in the private environment, but in regional-local alliances, "said Harry Gatterer of the Zukunftsinstitut convinced. "On many levels, that makes sense when energy and resources are available, and intellectual property is paid. With that, the business shifts from many to production to design. Nonetheless, classical practice remains upheld in many places because not every production can be translated into 3D processes. The balance becomes exciting. "
The end of the program TV
But let's not think so far into the future, it is already there. The technology revolution, for example, is turning entrenched thought structures upside down. Epub, Mp3, Avi and all the other digital book, music and film formats are already drawing a line under the conventional exploitation of intellectual property rights. Keyword: flat rate. With providers such as Netflix, Spotify & Co, the classic TV and radio programs are threatened with a rapid end. The future is consumption until you drop, when and where I want - completely legally at a fixed monthly price.
Even Ari Reichental, the CEO of 3D Systems, which is threatening patent suits for Xnumxd printing startup Formlabs, said: "Most companies and organizations are structured to protect and defend their intellectual property. This is not up to date anymore. Patent law and copyright are outdated. They force companies to act schizophrenically. We have to do things that do not fit our vision. "
Technology revolution VR: Stop using raw materials?
Another major development is VR (Virtual Reality) glasses, which are now finally sliding into a digital world - in 3D and cinema quality with sensors that adjust the image guidance of the head movement. The startup Oculus Rift - 2014 bought around 400 million and 1,6 billion dollars in shares of Facebook - is about to enter the market of the first model. Although it is initially intended primarily for computer gamers and home theater, but could trigger the jump in the "virtual revolution". Imagine it: Suddenly, devices like cell phones do not have to be made expensive, but are virtually operational as before. This not only creates previously unthinkable possibilities, but could also enormously reduce global raw material and material requirements. Why use office buildings when the digital office is even nicer and the colleague sits next to it anyway? Try on in the boutique? The virtual self shows whether it fits online to order - without leaving the house. However, Gatterer of the Zukunftsinstitut is skeptical: "According to our observation, VR glasses will remain a niche topic. Even though she is super-intelligent in many niches and actually creates added value. There are many arguments against the great application in daily life: violation of privacy, permanent distraction and thus (rather than extended) a limited perception. "
INFO: Virtual Reality
In the future, VR glasses from Oculus Rift, for example, will enable the path into new virtual worlds. The device was invented with the potential of a technology revolution by the American Palmer Luckey, whose startup "Oculus Rift" 2012 fetched around 2,5 million euros on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. 2013 released the first development devices, the first series model is expected at the end of 2015 in the market. A price is not yet fixed, the developer version currently costs 350 dollars.
Decisive elements of the helmet system are a particularly large field of view and particularly fast sensors, which make it possible to display corresponding images in a timely manner after head movements. The combination of 3 axis gyroscope and acceleration sensors, as well as an additional camera, is designed to provide rapid response to movements while a magnetometer is used to properly align the image. In other words, in the virtual world, one sees oneself as in reality - in an 360 degree radius. Coupled with HD resolution, 3D effects and correspondingly realistic sound control, a completely new experience is possible.
In March, 2014 announced Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR for a purchase price of $ 400 million dollars in cash and 1,6 billion dollars in Facebook shares. Accordingly, VR glasses are not expected to remain a niche product and a variety of applications will be available very quickly. Although computer games and home theater will be the first areas of application, Facebook has a lot to expect in terms of communication and social networking.
New dominance of the energy sector
Lars Thomson from the Swiss Office for Innovation and Futures Research has been announcing a "system leap towards intelligent devices" for years: "At first people took care of the machines, soon it would be the other way round." Soon houses and the building services will merge into a complete system , moreover, cooperate with automatic programs on the Internet. According to the futurologist, up to 700 per-person "things" will run invisibly in the household - "smart grids" are only part of it. An example: The home automation system locates the position of its owner abroad on his cell phone and notes that a return to the home due to the distance is no longer going out. The system decides on its own that the heating will not start.
However, "smart grids" also refers to future energy networking, which could possibly conquer the entire mobility market: The current problem: energy, especially renewable energy, is often produced when there is no great need. In Denmark, among others, there are pilot projects that use electric cars as energy storage systems to store energy at low demand and low prices, and to get it online when demand peaks. Already now it is being thought aloud about free-of-charge cars, which primarily serve one purpose: as energy storage.
Harry Gatterer of the Zukunftsinstitut on innovation tact, development dynamics and actual challenges of the future.
"The digital explosion of communication has us in a world in which we are overwhelmed in many areas. This excessive demand creates the impression that "everything" is changing and changing "very quickly". Yes, that change is even "radical". But it is also true that innovations that actually reach and "improve" people's lives have been declining since the 60s. Regardless of how many patents there are, or how many new apps appear on the market, the many "novelties" are obviously less and less touching on us. We are also in a time of great innovation ignorance, which is completely understandable.
The mere fact that we are experiencing a massive aging society should convince us that not everything can only get faster. An 60-year-old society can not only operate at ICE pace. But an older society has the potential to become a wiser society. Is not that exciting?
The dynamics we perceive arise because of an imbalance between "inside" and "outside". The world around us does not become more dynamic but more complex. We see a lot more details that evolve in any direction, and close to the big picture. We barely overlook the movements that ultimately lead to the great dynamics, and therefore over-interpret any fuzzel that stands in our way as a "trend". And: We love apocalypse, which is why we immediately deduce entire future worlds from the technical innovations: The data glasses that let us live in pure virtual worlds. The RFID technology that immediately turns any flower pot into a "smart pot". This is nonsense. We live in a technological world without thinking - today, and more in the future. But it is people and their brains who ultimately apply the technologies. And so we will reach the limits we can not overcome. We will also draw limits that can not be exceeded. Therefore, it makes sense for every company today to talk about technical innovations. To be technology-friendly, to deal with it, to recognize the digital reality. That's essential. But then again, do not underestimate the social phenomenon. How many discussions have we experienced in which the physical place has become par excellence? In doing so, we experience exactly the opposite: the more we digitize, the more important and essential becomes the physical place, the feeling, the experience, the grasping of surroundings and information. That's haptic, not virtual. At the moment, the challenge of our society AND the economy is to grow spiritually - not technically. "
