Technology in Sci-fi, Discussion #1: 3D Printing

Over the last few decades, 3D printing technology has made leaps and bounds, providing nerds like me with a fun hobby, and industry professionals with an interesting new tool to aid the problem solving process. It also gives writers of science fiction a fun tool to use as we speculate and create. 3D printing is a very versatile process that can be applied to many uses in art, sciences, engineering and manufacturing. In this post, I’ll discuss the strengths and weaknesses of 3D printing Technology as it exists today, what developments we might see in the near future, and its growing role in science fiction.

3D printing as we know it is divided into many different categories, all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses.  Despite this, I’m not going to get into definitions and specific applications. Why? (I’m walking on thin ice here) The different forms of printing that currently exist aren’t that different from one another, and they’re all used for a similar purpose. Certain facts also remain true regardless of what method of printing is used:

 

• Printers that yield higher quality prints are more expensive.
• The range of available printing materials is limited
• Printing usable parts and tools in industrial grade materials is expensive.
• Printing is slow.

While 3D printing has clear benefits to industrial and personal use for prototyping, I don’t see the current technology progressing to be used much beyond that. Sure, in an area where access to traditionally manufactured materials is very limited (such as the ISS), a printer that’s capable of producing industrial grade tools and parts would help enormously, but for mass production at large it lags behind the economics of standard industry procedures. I’ve read a lot of comments lately with regards to advances in printing technology stating that 3D printing is the future of mass production. Based on my knowledge of the subject, I assume that the people leaving those comments are unfamiliar with the capabilities of modern manufacturing equipment. 3D printing isn’t the only production technology that’s seen improvements lately, and barring the development of a completely different method of printing, it’ll stay as a good way to prototype, and little more.

So what kind of breakthrough would make 3D printing into a viable means of production? The ability to modify matter on a molecular and eventually atomic level would be a start. If it becomes possible to print entire devices at once in a timely manner, I think we’d start to see more manufacturing being done with printing. While there has been some encouraging research done  on the subject, the kind of printing that I’m talking about is still a long, long way off.

Regardless of whether or not the technology will ever be realized, the sci-fi authors of today are already imagining how molecular printing could work, and how it would affect our world(s). In fact, two of the works I’ve discussed recently on the blog rely heavily on molecular and atomic 3D printing: The Bobiverse by Dennis E. Taylor, and A Printer’s Choice by W. L. Patenaude.

In the Bobiverse,  3D printing is used by a Von Neumann probe to self-replicate, and to construct facilities that are to be used by future human colonizers on alien worlds. The printers in this instance use materials that are traditionally mined from asteroids by robots . The materials are then smelted into ingots and fed to the printers, which can switch between and combine materials at will, in order to complete complex print jobs. These printers are advanced enough to produce explosives, nuclear reactors, and even oak barrels for aging irish whiskey light-years from earth. These print jobs are precise, but not without danger, printing explosives might result in an accidental detonation, destroying the printer.

The printers featured in the Bobiverse are impressive, and probably a realistic representation of the kind of machines that major advances in molecular printing would yield. Patenaude’s printers in A Printer’s Choice however, push the envelope even further. These printers are capable of completing any print job imaginable, as they have the ability to rearrange subatomic particles into atoms of any element. Patenaude’s printers are also more advanced in their materials harvesting abilities, as they are themselves able to draw the matter and energy to complete print jobs from their surroundings. This makes them very versatile, and the printing possibilities are limited only by the user’s imagination.

The printers in A Printer’s Choice also feature a unique user interface. each controlled by a powerful AI, giving each printer its own personality that a programmer must interact with in order to complete a print job. It’s a very interesting concept, but I’ll have to save it for a future technology discussion, as it’s more relevant to AI than it is to printing.

For now, the printing that is featured in these examples gives us plenty to think about and hope for, but remains in the realm of fiction. Let me know what you think in the comments. Will 3D printing evolve to become a powerful means of production?