[hosh]

Ok. I'm not expecting distributed manufacturing to come over night or even in the near term. I'm aware that it requires crossing over a threshold before that happens.

However, I think it is worth developing these technologies with that in mind. The landscape may change faster than we think.

So I don't think it is "idealist" in the sense that, "well, in the real world, this just isn't practical or possible."

[nickpinkston]

Yea, I think you're right on landscape changing fast. There are definitely bottlenecks that could be opened if the right discoveries were made in material science, etc.