3D printed plastic guns are a high profile example of a new category of things called “Physibles.” The Pirate Bay, which houses a repository of physibles, defines them as “data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical.”278 3D guns are perfect crime weapons. At around $25 for some plastic plus the use of a printer, they are disposable like “burner cell phones.” Anyone who watches TV crime shows knows that police do their ballistic analysis of weapons by matching up the marks left on bullets. A gun that is used once and then discarded is fundamentally immune to that kind of forensics.
Most 3D printed guns have no serial numbers or identification marks and are made of plastic except for the firing pin, which in the case of The Liberator is an ordinary nail that you can buy on the Defense Distributed website for $5 with free shipping. So they are likely to pass through metal detectors, at least if you remove the nail, which Americans should not do because of a law called the Undetectable Firearms Act, which the U.S. Congress has extended until 2023.
Trying to engineer 3D printers to disallow the printing of guns is ultimately futile. It would simply lead to more innovative 3D guns that look like shower rings or action figures, two of the things commonly run off on 3D printers.
The attempt to control 3D printed guns demonstrates the emerging complexity of trying to separate the virtual and physical worlds. The CAD instruction files that allow the creation of the gun are clearly virtual. They have all the characteristics of digital information, such as instant accessibility all over the world, infinite replicability, and the inability to destroy them once they are distributed. Once they have been used to make a gun, they are transformed into a physical object with all its normal properties. The platform technology (3D printers) to make this happen is widely available, useful for many other functions, and almost impossible to control.
Lest you look at a plastic 3D gun and decide it would probably explode in your hand, please know that the 3D printing of metal is becoming a reality, through a process called direct metal laser sintering. Scanners are also getting better and cheaper. What comes out of 3D printers now will look like toys in a few years.
If 3D guns have law enforcement worried, other uses of 3D printing have some manufacturers terrified. The crime they have in mind is not murder, but the theft of intellectual property. A group at Michigan Technical University (MTU) went to the Thingiverse open source repository of 3D instruction files and selected, from over 100,000 items available, twenty that might be useful around the house and that could be bought commercially. Toys, watchbands, iPhone holders, pierogi makers, an orthotic insole, and the ever-popular shower curtain rings. Those are often the poster child for 3D printing because if you break one, you can scan one of its mates, 3D print it, and save yourself from buying a whole new set. As 3D printers get faster, it may even be quicker to run off a new garlic press than to rummage around looking for your old one.
The people who analyzed the 100,000 3D designs found that “even making the extremely conservative assumption that the household would only use the printer to make the selected twenty products a year, the avoided purchase cost savings would range from about $300 to $2000/year.”279
That means the printer could pay for itself in anywhere from four months to two years, even counting materials costs. They used a printer called the RepRap, about half of whose parts can themselves be 3D printed in an eerie kind of self-replicating robot printer universe.
By doing for manufacturing what online banking did for the financial industry, mass 3D printing will essentially reverse the “one size fits all model” that has dominated manufacturing since Henry Ford built his assembly line. In fact, the MTU researchers found that “the largest savings (e.g. over 10,000%) were seen with individually customized products, such as the orthotic” and indeed that’s where many see the future going. Rather than a trip to the shoe store, or even a visit to Amazon.com, your kids will select their colors and designs and run shoes off in time to wear to school tomorrow.
Criminals have already figured out that they can 3D print the keys to many cars, homes, and offices. A German lockpicking enthusiast apparently ran off a set of keys to unlock handcuffs from a photograph of the key hanging on a police officer’s belt. They also find the printers great for running off skimmers to put over ATM slots.280
Even famous works of art are falling prey to scanning and 3D printing. Todd Blatt walked into the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore and used his Google Glass to take a sequence of thirty photographs of a bust of Marcus Aurelius.281 He then stitched them together and sent them to a 3D printer. The result, as posted on his blog, is not going to pass for the original, but it is a reasonable memento of a trip to the art museum.282
In a paper on the legal aspects of 3D printing, Michael Weinberg argues that “the line between a physical object and a digital description of a physical object may also begin to blur. With a 3D printer, having the bits is almost as good as having the atoms.”283 He predicts that the kind of measures used to try to counter software, video, and music piracy will soon be extended to 3D designs.
There are some very creepy things possible with 3D printers, and some significant social changes. Handing your car keys to a parking valet may be risky business; he might scan them and 3D print himself a set. Then again, the days of car keys may be over as we move to keyfobs and biometrically controlled vehicles.
Because of the economics of factories and mass production, we have come to assume that if we see a ballpoint pen, it is actually a ballpoint pen. Pens that are also tear gas guns or video-recorders are usually sold in specialized “spy shops” and cost a lot more. Now, within reason, anything can be anything else.
There are even some bleeding edge experiments to alter the fundamental properties of matter. At the 2013 annual meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences, Professor Anne Glover, CBE, and Chief Scientific Advisor to the President of the European Commission, thumped the table and noted that we now understand that the table is “99.9% nothing” yet “I could spend my entire life pounding on it and my hand would not go through it.”
She added that it weighed tens of kilos and it would take a lot of energy to move it. “But, with the kind of work they are doing at CERN,” (the European research lab that gave us, among many other things, the world wide web) “we might be able to change that (its effective weight) to a few grams.”284
With that tantalizing tidbit, she opened up a world where materials would behave in totally different ways from what we expect.
We are already beginning to move into the exciting realm of printing living things, or at least replacement parts for them. Just as Dolly became the poster sheep for mammalian cloning from adult body cells, Buttercup is the poster duck for 3D printing of appendages. Born with a backwards left foot, he recently received a 3D printed prosthetic copy of his sister’s foot
The foot is made of silicone, and scientists are now hard at work to use 3D bioprinters to make precisely fitting bone pieces. Researchers at the University of Nottingham predict that tissue replacement technology will be deployed and clinically approved within the next decade.285
Imagine going into minor surgery for nasal polyps and waking up with half your face removed. That happened to Eric Moger from Waltham Abbey, Essex, when surgeons discovered an aggressive facial tumor. Through computer design and 3D printing, Moger has received a 3D printed prosthetic face that has not only improved his appearance, it allows him to drink and eat normally instead of through a feeding tube.286
This technology has even found its way into science fairs. A 17-year-old American at the White House Science Fair showed off a $250 prosthetic hand printed on a 3D printer. The possibility of printing entire organs, and perhaps even bioengineered critters, is certainly looming. Experts predict that skin will probably be the first organ that can be printed in this fashion.287 NASA has funded a project to use a 3D printer loaded with cartridges of powders and oil with a 30-year shelf life to make things like pizza
s in space.288
The combination of 3D printing technology with advances in biology, especially areas like stem cell research, may eventually take us to a world where if “we can dream it, we can make it.” In fact, the New York-based company MakerLove.com is offering free downloadable files for printing your own sex toys. They say they have “been helping people avoid embarrassment” since 1998. Not content with the usual, you can choose to have your vibrator personalized with a 3D image of Sigmund Freud.
The company ran a competition among its fans to determine whose head should go on their next product. Guess who won? As explained on their website: “I don’t believe everyone actually wants a sex toy made to look like Justin Bieber; in fact I think most people wanted to parody him in the form of one.”
Figure 8. Justin Bieber 3D printed sex toy. Courtesy of Tom Nardone.
The New York Toy Collective takes sexy 3D printing to an even more personal level: “We are the first and only company to use 3D scanning technology to allow consumers to create sex toys modeled after their own bodies. We can scan a penis (or any part) and turn it into a silicone toy.”289 They even promise to preserve your unique vein structure on your cloned genitalia.
There’s no doubt that 3D printing will revolutionize many aspects of our lives. Still, even in the future, we will probably continue to create our offspring in the time-honored way. It’s what will happen to them from the moment of conception that’s going to be both fascinating and very creepy.
Child Creep
According to BabyCenter.com, “one in three children born in the United States already have an online presence before they are born. That number grows to 92 percent by the time they are two. In 2012 the average digital birth of children occurs at approximately six months.”290
Mothers-to-be are often offered a DVD of their ultrasound examination, which presumably qualifies as baby’s first photo shoot. A Japanese clinic has flirted with also sending them home with a 3D printed model of their developing fetus, called “The Shape of an Angel.” It’s produced by a special technology developed by Fasotec Company Ltd. of Japan, now part of Stratasys. The resin effigy of your unborn child, costing about $1300, is delivered in an ornate jewelry box.291
When I put the question “what’s the creepiest use of technology” to New York-based computer security expert Raj Goel, he didn’t hesitate in answering: “What we’re doing to kids.”
He wasn’t just thinking of child pornography and online sexual exploitation, but also the whole spectrum of images of children that we post online. There is a whole economy surrounding photographs and personal information, and it is migrating from corporate America into junior high schools.
LinkedIn is the dominant site for business networking and trading mutually beneficial contacts and endorsements. In August 2013, they announced they were changing their policy to allow kids as young as 13 to have accounts:
“We are updating our User Agreement to make LinkedIn available to students 13 years and older. Smart, ambitious students are already thinking about their futures when they step foot into high school—where they want to go to college, what they want to study, where they want to live and work. We want to encourage these students to leverage the insights and connections of the millions of successful professionals on LinkedIn, so they can make the most informed decisions and start their careers off right.”292
Technology blogger Graham Cluley called this move “shameful and creepy” and pointed out that “they missed out the bit about how LinkedIn also wants to boost its membership numbers, and offer a larger audience for its advertisers.”293 Proof of this is the simultaneous announcement of “University pages”—an opportunity for postsecondary institutes to reach out to prospective customers.
Other critics of LinkedIn for Kids noted that social media pressure and bullying have led to numerous youth suicides, and opined that the last thing they need is another social media pressure cooker, especially one related to future career prospects.
Jack Rivlin, writing in The Telegraph, also chastised LinkedIn in a story headlined “it’s official, we’ve ruined childhood.”294 Rivlin sagely suggests that “LinkedIn, with its unabashed celebration of self-serving networking and creepy ability to seek out people you don’t want to speak to, is exactly what we should be insulating kids from.”
Rivlin notes that “LinkedIn tells you every decision about your future must be made in reference to ‘marketable skills’ and ‘building a personal brand’.” It’s also worth mentioning that Jump Rope and Coloring are now skills you can list on your profile.
To be fair, LinkedIn is making some special privacy provisions for users who (self-report) their age as being less than 18. No company wants to run afoul of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). However, plenty of parents would probably agree to their child’s LinkedIn profile being viewed by Satan if it would help them get into Harvard or score a prestigious internship in the future.
Not wanting to be left behind, Facebook’s manager of privacy and safety Nicky Jackson Colaco said in an interview in October 2013 that her company has “thought a lot about” lowering the minimum age of Facebook users, which is currently also thirteen. There’s a lot of purchasing influence, if not actual credit cards, in the hands of the pre-teen set.295
If the economic clout of children was ever in doubt, just consider the “Most Magical Place on Earth.” In 2013, Disneyworld in Orlando introduced MagicBands: durable, adjustable vinyl bracelets made to fit both children and adults. The bands are used for park admission, for unlocking hotel doors at Disney properties, and for goods and services on the grounds.
They will allow your kids to make certain purchases, helping even the youngest get into the habit of putting things on Mom and Dad’s tab. Disney is even selling Minnie and Mickey MagicSliders, little charms to decorate the MagicBands and help children determine specifically where the RFID chip is located, to make it easier for them to “tap to play.”
Buried in the fine print of the Disney Park Experience Terms and Conditions is a note that hotel “guests ages ten and over on your reservation will automatically be given charging privileges.” Of course you can go to the front desk and get that revoked. But you’d better not ditch the wristbands entirely, because, aside from being your entry pass, they’re the key that unlocks Disney’s popular FastPass+ system with its line jumping privileges.
Most people probably assume that the technology in the bands is passive RFID, the kind of chip in credit cards and key fobs that allows you to pay for gasoline, and which are hidden inside purchases that you might be tempted to shoplift, like those infamous Mach 3 razor blades.
Actually, according to the Disney site, “each MagicBand contains an HF Radio Frequency device and a transmitter which sends and receives RF signals through a small antenna inside the MagicBand and enables it to be detected at short-range touch points throughout Walt Disney World Resort. MagicBands can also be read by long-range readers located at Walt Disney World Resort used to deliver personalized experiences, as well as provide information that helps us improve the overall experience in our parks.”
For those who would prefer not to have the system alert Goofy or Snow White of their impending arrival, the card version of the MagicBand has “a passive HF Radio Frequency chip and cannot be detected by the long-range readers.”
There are secret technologies all over a Disney park, and even people hidden just below the surface. Some commentators have observed the “nobody ever passes gas at a Disney park” and the Smellitzers pumping out their odors may have something to do with that. A network of tunnels allows park employees, known as “Cast Members,” to scurry around and appear at just the right time and place. As explained in a delightful posting by Gabriel Oliver, “if you’ve ever been to a Disney park, one thing will stand out: It’s clean. Thousands and thousands of people are all around you, most of them kids, and there is zero trash on the ground. No sticky gum residue, no used condoms or old panties to
be seen anywhere. Everything is clean. Have you guessed why? Because people are popping up out of the ground to clean that shit up, like mole people, quickly disappearing back into their subterranean kingdom with you none the wiser.”296
Never wanting to miss a revenue opportunity, Walt Disney World® offers a $79 “Keys to the Kingdom” behind-the-scenes tour that includes a visit to these tunnels, or Utilidors.
Like DARPA, the Disney Corporation has a significant research enterprise. Its motto is “The Science Behind the Magic” and they live up to it, often working in partnership with leading universities.
Disney Research has produced a Swept Frequency Capacitive Sensing technology called Touché, which combines the touch screen capabilities of a tablet with the motion sensing abilities of a device like Microsoft’s Kinect. According to the Disney Research website, it “can not only detect a touch event, but simultaneously recognize complex configurations of the human hands and body during touch interaction.”297 It can detect, for example, a hand submerged in water and subtle gestures. Touché can enable smart doorknobs and replace computer devices like a mouse and keyboard with simple gestures like a finger pinch. It will undoubtedly find its way into a Disney theme park.
Another wonder from Disney Labs is “Inshin-Den-Shin” which translates as “unspoken mutual understanding.” A user records a message, and can then replay it by touching the ear of a friend or classmate.298 The stated goal of Disney Research is to make the technology invisible, because as noted by Mark Weiser, “the most profound technologies are those that disappear.”299
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