[steveklabnik]

Oh totally. It's like the state of the art in the 80s, or something. And they're rapidly improving.

I'm excited to see what happens as the patents in this space expire. I'm expecting it to be similar to what happened with steam engines.

[StavrosK]

I expect it to be similar to what happened with the printing press and computers in that you'll be able to download (/pirate) actual objects. The revolution will be huge.

[iwwr]

You wouldn't download a car, would you?

[nickpinkston]

Too late - someone did: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/11/first-3d-printed-car...

[StavrosK]

I'd definitely download a policeman's helmet.

[khafra]

The best machine gun in Mass Effect 2 has "Fabrication Rights Management" technology which prevents you from printing one for each member of your team. I doubt real-world engineers for companies whose products would be most affected by downloadability are too far behind.

[nickpinkston]

Whoa - that's an interesting take on DRM! Nowadays an industrial CT scanning usually gets past that - not sure what Mass Effect claims to use ;-)

[DanI-S]

I'm looking forward to my open source kitchen utensils!

[steveklabnik]

No need to look forward: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1111