CAMDEN, Maine -- What if instead of incurring the wrath of the authorities by torrenting movies and CDs, you could visit some shady web server that lets you download, say, a camera or a car?
This -- minus the shady bits -- is the ultimate vision of the RepRap Project (that's "replicating rapid-prototyper"), a stuff-replicating initiative spearheaded by Adrian Bowyer of the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. Bowyer gave his pitch for the latest generation RepRap machine (pictured) at the PopTech 2007 conference Thursday morning in Camden, Maine.
RepRap's claim to internet fame is that it's a 3-D printer that can fabricate breadbox-size stuff that can be squirted together from ceramics and termoplastics. Bowyer said RepRaps will eventually run on free, open-source software, and that it should cost $400 to build the first one, which should soon be able to replicate itself ... and then look out for the macroscopic equivalent of grey goo.
As captured in a mural (pictured above) by PopTech artist in residence Peter Durand,
Bowyer's vision is big: If money buys stuff, but stuff can be cheaply replicated, what happens to the old greenback? "It'd be interesting to make a dent in the entire concept of money," Bowyer remarked.
[Photos by Mark Anderson]
