Mine and Yours and the Open Source Threat

'Dang, where is that spatula?'

'Hon, Hon, Can you print me off another spatuala? I can't find any.'

Need a soother, or some other often misplaced object.....Print it. This is the next generation of 3D opportunity. I was listening to an interview on Spark the other day that rattled my brain.

I have been a huge fan (as much as a technofobe can be) of open source and things like wikipedia. Why? because they go against the grain of consumerism, materialism, privacy and ultimately of our deep sense of individualism because they share, colaborate, and freely give what most of us would naturally like to bottle, contain, protect....

So here is a product, a 3D printer that a professor (Adrian Boyer) has put on line all open source so.....in theory even his printer could be printed off, piece by piece. The entire technology that would allow you to create any household plastic object entirely free. Need a ball? a souther? a bottle? a tupperware? The entire plastic manufacturing industy could become obselete.

Now why hasn't he patented it, so that he can make mega money?....Because he is motivated to see how far this idea will go. He comments saying, "Protecting an idea is for people who want to make money to hire lawyers to fight patent laws...." Ultimately it is a way to have people with resources pay for something and keep it from the hands of the people who could often benefit from it the most.

WOW! Could it be that community (something we often spiritualize as a Christian idea) is actually something that is so human. That those that can see past the shallowness, of 'mine' and 'yours' actually long for something....shared, useful, accessible.

Check out the 3D printer interview from Spark.