Way too many people still think 3d printing is an anomoly, a waste of time, a hobby. I would tender the view that this is the repsonse of dinosaurs viewing the mammal, or of "serious computing" specialists considered the early micro computer enthusiasts.
In any case, it was a pleasure to come across this TED talk by Lisa Harouni that gives a great update of all the different elements of 3d printing as it stands today, and points to the rapidly emerging personal manufacturing future.
This TED talk provides a meta-pattern to understand the rise of China/India, etc as being associated with the East accumulating some of the 'killer apps' or patterns from the West, and thus regaining their historical productivity balance with the West. It's the great re-convergence.
At the end of the talk Niall Ferguson makes the case that the current Western fiscal crises are mainly epiphenomenon and have been accelerated by the underlying shift or rebalancing of power.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/niall_ferguson_the_6_killer_apps_of_prosperi...
