The Online Investing AI Blog

What if you had a machine that, if you needed a hub cap for your car, you could just touch a few buttons and… poof… you had a new hub cap?

Then imagine you needed a new car…

I think you know where I’m going. Rapid prototyping is like a printer, except instead of churning out documents, it can produce for 3-D objects. It may be in its preliminary stages of development, but if you think my hubcap and auto analogies are somewhere off in the future with George and Jane Jetson, think again.

Here’s where we’re at now:

Obviously you can imagine what this does for your personal life. You want new dishes? Create some. See a statue at a museum you thought would look cool in your dining room? Whip up a miniature exact likeness. Some rapid prototyping machines can even print out circuits with more advanced models able to put together complete electronics gear.

But, think–if this continues toward mass adoption and trends along this exponential path–how the economy is revolutionized. Transportation costs: nil. Material costs: next to nil. Labor cost: Perhaps a royalty for the inventor or designer.

And you’re styling down the road with those new hub caps.

(Special thanks to my friends at Transcurve for turning me on to this video.)

Related posts:

1. Print a House Technology
2. The End of the Business Cycle
3. Preparing For The Killer Investment App: Automated Trading
4. After Energy Dependence… I’ll Tell You What
5. Ditch The Car, Take The Pod

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