Editorial

Disruption

Article from Issue 152/2013
Author(s):

The long anticipated phenomenon of 3D printing, which the futurists have long identified as a potential “disruptive technology,” truly arrived this month with the appearance of the first 3D-printing controversy: 3D printing of cheap hand guns. Pop science prognosticators who have been bleary-eyed over the “promise” of 3D printing seemed caught off guard by the appearance of the first 3D guns. (You mean this wasn’t just for printing heart valves and Ironman exoskeletons?) At last, 3D printing was not just a quirky popular science oddity, but something that could serve as the fodder for moral arguments – by both sides, and a blogosphere seemingly thrilled to have some new material for speech making and hand wringing.

Dear Linux Magazine Reader,

The long anticipated phenomenon of 3D printing, which the futurists have long identified as a potential "disruptive technology," truly arrived this month with the appearance of the first 3D-printing controversy: 3D printing of cheap hand guns. Pop science prognosticators who have been bleary-eyed over the "promise" of 3D printing seemed caught off guard by the appearance of the first 3D guns. (You mean this wasn't just for printing heart valves and Ironman exoskeletons?) At last, 3D printing was not just a quirky popular science oddity, but something that could serve as the fodder for moral arguments – by both sides, and a blogosphere seemingly thrilled to have some new material for speech making and hand wringing.

The weapon itself, which is called the "Liberator" by the people who created the blueprint, does not appear to be anywhere even close to worthy of all the controversy. I have seen the same snapshot of the gun getting test fired in 50 online articles by now. What I haven't seen is any pictures of a bullet fired from the gun actually hitting anything like a target. I haven't seen any statistics on how fast the bullet is moving, its momentum, or the damage it is capable of doing. Is it like a real gun they use in the crime shows? Or is it more like one of the inventive but hardly war-ready cannons they make in my part of the world with a shaft of PVC pipe and a can of aerosol that will launch a potato into the neighbor's yard?

[...]

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