Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
13
Designing
the future
A popular way to describe the potential of 3D printing as the ultimate
manufacturing machine is to compare it to the Replicator in
Star Trek
.
The Replicator was a machine that took verbal commands and fabricated what-
ever Enterprise crewmembers requested. In other words, the Replicator was a
machine that had the power to make anything.
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.
When I watched
Star Trek
as a kid, it used to frustrate me that nobody ever put
the Replicator to the test. On episode after episode, whenever the Replicator
appeared, all anyone ever asked for was . . . a cup of Earl Grey tea. On a daring
day, a crew member might ask for a piece of cheesecake. Perhaps Mr. Spock's
lack of imagination could be excused because of his Vulcan heritage. But not
that of his human colleagues.
As an adult, I place the blame on
Star Trek
's scriptwriters. Given a machine
that could make anything, their imaginations could only stretch as far as hav-
ing this wondrous Replicator spit out a mundane cup of tea. In my lab, we call
this phenomenon the “Earl Grey Syndrome.”
Design for 3D printing suffers from the Earl Grey Syndrome. Like the
unused power of the Replicator, 3D printing offers us an unexplored new
design space. Yet our imaginations remain enslaved by past experience. We
humans are creatures of habit. Our creations are elaborations of what we're
already familiar with. Like the old saying goes, “If all you have is a hammer,
then everything looks like a nail.”
Part of the problem is the design software we have to work with. Computer-
aided design tools are critical in the 3D printing process, yet design software
remains entangled in limitations imposed by once-inadequate computing
