There has recently been a confluence of extremely interesting news floating about in the past week, leading to some really mind-blowing conclusions:
• Scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil has been everywhere in the past few weeks, speaking about how the exponential compounding of information will lead to an explosion of new technologies, covering all spectrums from medicine to computing, and it’s going to happen much sooner than most people think. What he is saying is very profound when you combine it with the next two bits…
This week, during our class discussion of prototypes, the text barely touched on the subject of “rapid prototyping”, another name for 3D printing. I am fascinated by the implications that this technology has for manufacturing and for sustainability. As a matter of fact, the confluence of several different ideas and technologies are making it possible to reverse the trend of mass-production and mass consumption and turn it on its head, where soon we will be able to make what we need, only when we need it, and exactly to our specifications. Forget mass customization: think Star Trek.
Steve Puma is a sustainability and strategy consultant, technologist and writer. He lives with his wife Cori and pug dog Miles in Northern California. More...
