Materializing Information RR

I think this article on “Materalizing Information” was actually very compelling. It was less idealized than the Minecraft/Makerbot video article and brought about a number of good point about the pros and somewhat cons of digital desktop fabrication.

The writers really went in-depth with their details. I already knew computers were used in manufacturing since the 1960s, but it was nice for them to note it. Unlike the video article, they actually get the price right for Makerbot printers and they certainly are very knowledgable on the subject of 3d printers. Overall, I actually liked the article. It was a very well written piece with lots of well researched info and discription. In addition, the article was not worded so it was over technical. It was straightforward and accessible to anyone who picked it (not unlike 3d printing technologies and maker space groups they were discussing).

One of the most fascinating sections to think about was “Section 2: Results from environmental scan”. I knew there were places which were repositories of digital objects online (as I have wandered through a few of them to satisfy my own curiosity), but the writers go in an interesting direction when they link Google 3D Warehouse to Google Earth and Google Maps. I knew you could digitalize pieces of art or untensils, etc., but the implications of using maps, satellites and photographs to digitalize the world is amazing. It is just mind boggling that, with the right resources we could create an accurate digital world. That is just amazing. Of course the current 3d printers would only be handheld sizes so I don’t know if it could be printed but just a digital representation is still cool.

The other fascinating section was the cons of desktop fabrication. They do bring up a good point about increasing our “throw-away” culture. It is a very distressing idea. It goes back to the whole “the Minecraft/Makerbot video article” about the idea of scarcity. We do not have an eternal supply of anything unlike Minecraft so attention must be paid to that. Add in legal issues and we have a very convoluted area of design. Like I said, very interesting article that I need to pour over again to fully apreciate.