World's first 3D printed gun successfully fired in the US

[Eraser]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatron#T ... neration_1

(No, he wasn't a lawyer.)

DTS, everyone here knows who megatron is. It's just that your joke falls flat on its face due to it not being funny.

[DTS]

I keep forgetting clever jokes don't work on nerd audiences. Wit has no truck with the witless, in other words.

[Whiskey 7]

what

Nice Doombrain. One word comebacks often mean so much and really convey the true message rather than too many works

[LawL]

I keep forgetting clever jokes don't work on nerd audiences. Wit has no truck with the witless, in other words.

You should test your theory by posting a clever joke.

[MKJ]

olo

[Ryoki]

Was thinking the other day... what worries me most about this story is that 3d printers, which is a futuristic awesome tech with very interesting economic & social consequences, might face serious regulation now that our governmental overlords have discovered deranged people might make dangerous things with it.

Such a thing would be a damn shame. I had visions of a world where one of these things is in every house, people up- and downloading print-plans for micropayments and printing shit they'd otherwise buy in stores. Which would be good for the wallet and good for the environment (and probably be outrageously good for creativity).

[Eraser]

Yeah that's what I have been thinking for some time as well. This will probably be regulated to death. I guess there will be a strong anti-3D printer lobby from the manufacturing industry. There will probably be some sort of organization like the RIAA that will try to buy politicians into accepting crazy regulatory laws. Otherwise I'm pretty sure 3D printers would mean the end of Tupperware

[Transient]

With any luck, 3D printers will become so useful and beneficial to society that the government will have no choice but to relax regulations as the technology grows.

Recording studios pushed hard to make digital music go away, yet here it is. Hopefully 3D printers share the same tenacity. If it does happen, it will be a long, hard fight, just like with any new technology...

[Transient]

Alternatively, we can jailbreak our printers and torrent the shit we want.

[Eraser]

Alternatively, we can jailbreak our printers and torrent the shit we want.

Yeah well that's probably step one: some kind of DRM mechanism that stops the printer from printing non-authorized 3D model files.
Good thing though is that the companies affected by 3D printing technology are probably not as organized as the entertainment industry is and hopefully (but this is probably naive) they'll learn from the mistakes the entertainment industry made and embrace the technology and do something with it rather than trying to stop it.

[GONNAFISTYA]

Just imagine the incredible outrage if someone actually created a real and true replicator like you see in Star Trek (which incidentally didn't account for humanity staying a bunch of paranoid, violent idiots in the future).

THEY'LL USE THEIR KITCHEN REPLICATOR TO MAKE NOOKULAR BOMBS!!!!!!!!! ERMERGERD!!!!