Disruptive Technology

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Question 4

In the beginning of the course we discussed the different industrial revolutions and their impact on the world. The focus of this class is to make people aware of this new technology that could continue to grow and reach a point in the not too distant future causing a global transformation that is equal to any of the previous industrial revolutions. Every developed and developing country has some type of manufacturing industry either using machines to build cars or using people, using machines to make clothes. No matter what type of product it is. If it can be manufactured it is or will be susceptible to the impact of AM which is why this technology is shaping up to be the next industrial revolution. Due to the improved quality, speed, and cost of AM versus traditional manufacturing businesses have no choice but to adapt their business models. This means in some ways the world especially the developed countries are in an arms race to advance the technology to gain that competitive advantage over other countries. National governments around the world including the U.S, China, Singapore, and Germany to name a few are allocating money to advance the technology within their universities and research departments. Developed countries have the opportunity to gain a huge advantage in industries such as food, clothing, cars, medicine, and aerospace to name a few. Also with the development of personal home 3D printers industries around the world are or will be faced with the dilemma of patents and copyright infringement. As the technology improves people will have easier access to recreate counterfeit items that are almost as good or harder to distinguish against the real thing. This is already an issue for some industries but could take counterfeiting to another level in the future. Governments and industries will have to prepare for this potential theft of intellectual property. Another transformation that can and is currently taking place is that 3D printing is replacing manufacturing jobs that people had to do. In a world that already lacks of good paying jobs this is a problem. However, with any new technology comes opportunity in new technical jobs. Many people in the job market will need to move from unskilled labor force to skilled. Overall this technology has the possibility of doing much more harm than good. As previously mentioned advances in medicine creating drugs in remote or developing/underdeveloped countries with portable 3D printers could save countless lives. 3D printers are also printing food which could help keep food better preserved before a 3D printer builds/cooks it which is a great alternative for space explorers to freeze dried food. Another student mentioned in the discussion how 3D printing could help with the world’s food shortage in using 3D printers to use material like algae that is otherwise inedible to be used as a main ingredient in food products.