{"id":9470,"date":"2012-09-21T21:50:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-22T01:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/?p=9470"},"modified":"2021-10-19T06:49:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T10:49:35","slug":"deadly-downloads-the-moral-frontier-of-3d-micro-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/deadly-downloads-the-moral-frontier-of-3d-micro-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly Downloads: The moral frontier of 3D micro-manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their article, \u201cSci-Fi That Foretold The Future<\/a>,\u201d \u00a0Google\u2019s Think Quarterly<\/em> gives a list of science fiction films that have become, to some degree, a reality. More surprising than the reality of science fiction in our lives today is that the age old problems of reality have not changed at all. \u00a0As the micro-manufacturing industrial revolution unfolds, the ethical problems of being human remain the same.<\/p>\n

Kickstarter recently decided to suspend its campaign to crowd-fund an open source 3D printable gun<\/a>. \u00a0Cody Wilson had a extraordinary idea for a project that merges art, computer aided design (CAD), open-source 3D printer code and the RepRap<\/a>\u00a0self-replicating 3D printer, with the entirely practical desire to kill people we fear. \u00a0He calls his project “Defense Distributed,” and here is his rather creepy video describing it:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AQ6Q3BfbVBU&feature=player_embedded#!<\/p>\n

Personally, I hope Indiegogo or some other crowdfunding platform lets him crowdfund it with them. \u00a0Or maybe he can create his own crowdfunding platform for a niche in lethal arts funding. After all,\u00a0Offbeater<\/a>\u00a0is a crowdfunding platform for pornographers. \u00a0So why not deadly weapons crowdfunding? Art doesn\u2019t kill people or give them venereal diseases or treat women and children and masochists like disposable sex toys: people do that.<\/p>\n

This creates all sorts of delightful questions. \u00a0New age Zeno\u2019s paradoxes: \u00a0In particular, is the open source movement becoming a bit too dangerous now that desktop manufacturing is moving forward so swiftly? \u00a0With the real-life option of \u00a0purchasing the materials to build your initial RepRap 3D printer for less than $1000, and then using that initial RepRap printer and the open source design software of the RepRap Project to spawn unlimited copies of that same 3D printer, are there moral hazards we should consider? \u00a0\u201cThe RepRap Project started the open-source 3D printer revolution.\u201d Well, why not download the open source CAD file to print a lethal weapon? \u00a0It seems impossibly stupid to outlaw publishing one\u2019s own intellectual property and making it open source, even if that intellectual property is lethal. \u00a0Jail for the smart creative kid with a penchant for dangerous toys? \u00a0Will we have to outlaw some sorts of intellectual activity? \u00a0Outlaw THINKING? Ah! When thinking is outlawed only outlaws will think!<\/p>\n

Imagine the difficulty of creating statutes to punish people who dream up interesting, dangerous CAD designs and publish them for free online. \u00a0As an ethics guy, I\u2019ll be honest, this is paydirt. \u00a0Not because I know the answers, but because so far no one<\/em> knows the answers.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with an overview of 3D printing and then look at some of the everyday applications that already exist:
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