Guns, Body Parts, and Vaccines
We live in and rely on a digitally connected, global environment that constantly evolves around us. Keeping pace with and incorporating technological innovations to further empower how users communicate and thrive using technology is a core tenant of the internet age. At the flick of a switch, you have the ability to download blueprints for a gun today off the internet. The company that designed the first 3D gun blueprints, Defense Distributed, had already seen over 100,000 downloads before the blueprint was taken offline by the U.S. Government. The CAD files have been more popular than any design Defense Distributed group has made available, gun parts have included the body of an AR-15 and the magazine for an AK-47.
Internet users have access to millions of patents through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) search engine. Users can research patents related to firearms accessible online free of charge since 2010. Search for “gun” and you can find over 2.5 million search results, search for “handgun” results in over six thousand designs.
We can save the gun debate for later, however they are designed to kill whatever the intended target, sport or otherwise.
There are several body parts that can be 3d printed already today, ears, kidneys, blood vessels, skin grafts, and bones. A 3-D bioprinter deposits multiple types of <insert your body part needed> cells cultivated from the cells taken by your biopsy while simultaneously building a scaffold out of biodegradable material. The finished product is then incubated. The scaffold, once transplanted into a patient, would slowly biodegrade as the functional tissue grows.
In the near future your biopsy will no longer be needed as your sequenced DNA code will replace the cells necessary to grow the parts. Can you imagine the industry around spare body parts built for potential use in case of emergency? Life is a DNA software system, genome scientist Craig Venter has said. The man that mapped the genome of humans latest project is developing the ability to synthesize life from DNA alone, accelerating vaccine production, Venter said. Tests are in process with DARPA to sequence virus life-form DNA and beam the code up to a C130 transport where the vaccine will be processed and in the future potentially deployed. “We found a way we can move proteins, viruses and single human cells at the speed of light,” he said. “We can digitize biology, send it at the speed of light and reconfigure the biology at the other end. ” Ideally, people could download, 3D-print, and inject new vaccines when and where needed.
3d Printers and Star Trek Replicators
For those DIY’ers the future looks bright! For about $2000 you can purchase a MakerBot product that will generate all types of magical things. Needless to say we are in the early days of x/y/z printer technology. Reminds me of a class trip in fourth grad to Gerber Scientific in Ct where we saw mechanical printers drawing pictures of Snoopy back in the 70’s on an architectural x/y plotter. Gerber now effectively manages product design and manufacturing processes with CAD software for pattern design and computer-controlled cutting systems. Those pens that used to draw our favorite cartoon characters were replaced with blades for cutting all types of material.
So too will we see a change in the printers of today that are material specific to either food, plastic, metals, or bio-materials, etc… Most importantly, the code to build what you want or need will be readily available from the internet, shared, transmitted, eventually manifesting code into physical objects or being.
The medium is the message
The form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. Media analyst Marshall McLuhan would say that our printed future of medicine, military, toys, automotive, jewelry, electronics, and food holds important civic purposes as well as being an engine of economic development.
What will the internet build for you?