by Zoe Chace
在歷史的長河里,每過一段時間,就會出現(xiàn)一種技術(shù)來改變我們的生活。什么會成為下一種這樣的技術(shù)呢?有人認為是3D打印。在經(jīng)過了最初“猶抱琵琶半遮面”的神秘階段后,現(xiàn)在它正逐漸成為一種潮流,并開始廣泛應用于設計領域。如果只需要輕觸鼠標,你就可以得到一件立體實物,這樣的未來真是讓人期待呢。
Zoe Chace: First, the “3-D printer” is the biggest misnomer[誤稱] ever. Do not think printer. Think magic box that creates whatever object you can imagine. Just imagine for a second, everything you would want custom made[定做的], super cheap. And this has already happening. You fly in planes from Boeing and others with parts in them that have been 3-D printed. Right now there are 30,000 people walking around with 3-D printed titanium[鈦] hips[臀部] inside, way[遠遠地] less expensive than they used to be.
Terry Wohlers: And theyre just getting started. The possibilities in orthopedic[整形外科的] manufacturing really is almost limitless[無限的].
Chace: In the future, analyst Terry Wohlers says forget about titanium or even cotton. Try human tissue[組織].
Wohlers: You lose a finger, you print out a new one. Chace: Yeah, like, actual body parts, printing out new fingers using your cells.
Wohlers: Bones and bladders[膀胱] and eventually kidneys[腎] and so forth.
佐伊·切斯:首先,“3D打印機”這個名稱就是有史以來最不恰當?shù)囊粋€用詞。不要把它想成一部打印機,要把它想成一個能創(chuàng)造出任何你能想象出來的物品的魔法盒子。只要想象一下,任何你想要定制的東西都將變得唾手可得。而且這樣的事情已經(jīng)發(fā)生了。你乘坐的波音飛機或者其他什么的,已經(jīng)采用了以3D打印技術(shù)制造出來的零部件。如今已有三萬人借著3D打印出來的鈦金屬假肢到處走動了,價格遠比過去便宜。
特里·沃勒斯:這些不過才是開始,它將給整形外科產(chǎn)業(yè)帶來無限的可能。
切斯:將來,或許會如分析家特里·沃勒斯所言,別再想著用鈦金屬甚至棉花,試試用人體組織。
沃勒斯:你沒了一根手指,你就打印出一根新的。
切斯:對,就像真實的身體部位那樣,用我們自己的細胞打印出新的手指。
沃勒斯:骨頭、膀胱,甚至是腎臟等等。
Chace: Theres another thing to keep in mind though, about the arrival of 3-D printing. If the industrial revolutions that we know centralized things gave birth to enormous[龐大的,巨大的] companies that make a massive[大規(guī)模的] amount of things, 3-D printing kind of reverses[反轉(zhuǎn)] that process.
Chris Anderson: Whats new is the fact that the most advanced, you know, machines are now as accessible[容易取得的] to regular people as they are to the biggest companies.
Chace: Chris Anderson is not strictly a regular guy. Hes the former editor of Wired Magazine注1, now the CEO of a robotics[機器人技術(shù)] company. He says the 3-D printer democratizes[使民主化] who gets to be in manufacturing. Anybody with a good idea can have a pretty good prototype[原型] really cheaply, and then bring that product to the masses.
Anderson: Taking a product from one to many; taking a product through its entire cycle from invention to creation and marketing and building a company around it, that just wasnt possible in most of the 20th century because manufacturing was just so hard and inaccessible[達不到的].
Chace: So if you want to go into business manufacturing stuff, theres a much lower barrier[柵欄,屏障] to entry. Soon enough, Anderson says, you might see 3-D printers showing up at Wal-Mart or Barnes & Noble注2, on desktops, in the office, whatever. That doesnt mean everybody will do it, but the fact that it is now so easy to be the boss of your own factory; that is a pretty revolutionary[革命性的] idea.
Anderson: You know, Karl Marxs line that, you know, the power belongs to those who own the means of production, and regular people didnt own the means of production.
Chace: And isnt it funny how its working out? Its capitalism[資本主義] thats taken the means of pro- duction and turned it into a point-and-click[點擊鼠標] experience for anyone.
切斯:不過還有一件事是必須謹記的,那就是關(guān)于3D打印技術(shù)的到來。如果說我們所知的工業(yè)革命是集中資源來造就具有大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)力的巨大公司的話,那么3D打印技術(shù)則有點兒逆轉(zhuǎn)此進程。
克里斯·安德森:最叫人感到新鮮的是如今普通人也能像大公司那樣輕易獲得最先進的機器了。
切斯:從嚴格意義上來說,克里斯·安德森不算是普通人。他以前是《連線》雜志的編輯,現(xiàn)在是一家機器人技術(shù)公司的總裁。他說3D打印機將帶來制造業(yè)的民主化。任何有好點子的人都能以真正低廉的成本做出一個非常好的樣板,然后再使它成為大眾產(chǎn)品。
安德森:將一個產(chǎn)品從單個變成許多個;使一個產(chǎn)品完成整個生產(chǎn)循環(huán):從發(fā)明到創(chuàng)造,再到營銷,再到建立公司,這在二十世紀的大多數(shù)時候是不太可能實現(xiàn)的,因為那時工業(yè)生產(chǎn)是如此困難而不易做到。
切斯:所以如果你想要進入制造行業(yè)的話,門檻就會低很多了。安德森說,很快,大家或許就能看到3D打印機出現(xiàn)在沃爾瑪超市或巴諾書店,在桌面上、辦公室之類的地方。那并不意味著所有人都會去使用它,但現(xiàn)在要成為個人工廠的老板就如此容易了;那是一個非常革命性的想法。
安德森:你知道的,卡爾·馬克思說過,權(quán)力屬于那些擁有生產(chǎn)工具的人,而普通人以前沒有生產(chǎn)工具。
切斯:所以這事最后看來不是很好笑嗎?正是占有了生產(chǎn)工具的資本主義,到頭來把生產(chǎn)變成了對每個人來說只要輕點鼠標就能實現(xiàn)的體驗。
注1:《連線》雜志,是一份從1993年3月開始在全美發(fā)行的彩色月刊雜志,并同時擁有在線版本。該雜志著重于報道科技對文化、經(jīng)濟和政治的影響。
注2:巴諾書店,美國最大的零售連鎖書店,旗下大部分書店都銷售雜志、報紙、漫畫、DVD、禮品、電子游戲和音樂,其吉祥物是一只名叫Barnsie的泰迪熊。