Take shopping. In ten years if you go hunting for a pair of Nike in Kingsway, there will, in all likelihood, not be a single pair of shoes in the store. There could rather be a virtual football field. The moment you walk in they will hook your feet into an electronic contraption. You will then be asked to kick a virtual ball between the goalposts projected on a wall. The gadget with fluffy interiors will adjust to your feet until you feel comfortable moving around. The size settled, you will next be asked to pick desired colors and other specifications. All this information will then be fed into a computer and in 10 minutes you will have your custom-made shoes—shoes like no other human being will ever have.
During my childhood I used to be fascinated by the fables of Aladdin and his magic lamp. When Aladdin gently caressed the lamp, a blue genie in a goatee would appear: "What is it that you want, my master?" he asked. Aladdin only had to name his desire and it would be fulfilled in a jiffy. The fast-evolving 3D printers of the 21st century promise to be the proverbial genies of old Aladdin fables.
If you think this is farfetched for residents of one of the poorest countries, you might be heartened to know that some forms of 3D printing are already available here.
Many recent amputees in Nepal have been fitted with artificial limbs produced by 3D printers. Their new hands and feet, they say, 'feel real'. Earlier this year, Nepal Communitere and Field Ready, two non-profits, had organized a 3D printing session in Kathmandu. The purpose was to demonstrate how additive manufacturing, as the technology is also known, could help design, right here in Nepal, materials needed in immediate aftermath of natural calamities like earthquakes. Another non-profit, Rebuild Nepal, sells 3D-made handicrafts, including cute little Buddhist stupas, and donates the proceeds to quake victims.
So the kind of 'hyper-customization' 3D printing makes possible could soon become an everyday reality for Nepalis. Consider its implications in medicine. If Nepal can design and produce its own drugs we will no longer be dependent on India (or any other country) for even vital medicines. After designing our own drugs, the next step could be to print fossil fuel and LPG. A future blockade, in that case, will be doomed from the start.
The costs are coming down, too. Whereas the first 3D printers would cost an average of US $20,000 back in 2010, these days one can be had for less than US $1,000. These machines are, of course, still in their infancy, with today's 3D printers able to churn out only a narrow range of products. Yet it is not hard to imagine a future in which every house, besides a compulsory laptop, will also have to have a 3D printer—and a range of 'inks'. The ink, the composite element in 3D printing, used to print a human hand, for instance, will be different from the ink used to print a shoe which will be different from the ink used to print pre-cooked tandoori chicken.
Talking about food, think about the revolution it will bring about in our dining habits. You will enter your favorite restaurant and pick a table. No sooner have you sat down, a digital menu will be flashed on the countertop. You will make your picks and within a minute the table, which doubles as a 3D printer, will have the most delicious snacks and perfectly calibrated cocktails ready to satisfy your eager taste buds.
I realize that people are pathetic at predicting even their own future, let alone that of the mankind. Back in the 1970s and 80s it had become fashionable among climate scientists to talk of 'global cooling'. The idea was that the earth's atmosphere would be so polluted by the 1990s, only half of the sun's rays would be able to penetrate the thick haze. Thomas Malthus, writing in 1798, had warned of an explosion of global population, as increased productivity, in his view, would inevitably lead to unsustainable population growth. So in the end 3D printing may also fail to live up to its tall initial promise.
But what a beautiful idea it is—the stuff of dreams that man's ingenuity has turned into a reality.
biswas.baral@gmail.com
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