One of the better movies I had the privilege to see at this year's SXSW was the documentary Print The Legend, detailing the rise of the 3D printing industry. As someone who works in technology (and sometimes specifically with 3D printers!) I'm particularly fascinated with this burgeoning means of production. The potential for 3D printing is practically limitless: imagine if you could buy stuff from Amazon the same way you buy music from iTunes. You click buy, download a digital file and send it to your printer and within a matter of minutes you have a new case for your iPhone or a stylish new coffee mug.
The technology is not quite ready for prime time, but I think the comparison drawn in the opening seconds of this trailer is apt: nobody thought regular folks would want to use a personal computer at first either. We all know how that turned out.
Lest you think this is going to be a dry 90 minutes explaining the minutiae of an impenetrable technology, let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. The filmmakers follow the rise of Makerbot, the biggest innovators in there world of consumer grade 3D printing, alongside the birth of the fledgling Formlabs as they struggle to bring their first device to production. And just to spice things up we also spend quite a bit of time with Cody Wilson, the Texan who's been freaking out the general public by using the technology to create working firearms. It's exactly as terrifying as you think.
Lest you think this is going to be a dry 90 minutes explaining the minutiae of an impenetrable technology, let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. The filmmakers follow the rise of Makerbot, the biggest innovators in there world of consumer grade 3D printing, alongside the birth of the fledgling Formlabs as they struggle to bring their first device to production. And just to spice things up we also spend quite a bit of time with Cody Wilson, the Texan who's been freaking out the general public by using the technology to create working firearms. It's exactly as terrifying as you think.
The Doc will hit Netflix on September 26th. I highly recommend you add it to your queue.
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