Some more items regarding 3D printing and possible military applications. And from a conversation only a few days ago with an acknowledged aviation expert. 3D printing not merely relegated to the fabrication of toys, curiosities and oddities using plastic. Also used with proprietary MATERIALS and BIOLOGICAL matter also.
1. According to an acknowledged aviation expert an aerospace firm we shall call "Advanced Aerospace Industries Inc. [AAII]" far ahead of the curve and already incorporating 3D printing:
"I was taken on a tour of "AAII's" manufacturing facility in Southern California day before yesterday. Everything there is impressive, as are their plans for the future. However, what intrigued me most was their own printer-manufacturing device and their ability to manufacture very high quality small metal parts from proprietary material using the 3D printer technique. It seems the company had an outside manufacturer making the parts the traditional way, charging exorbitant prices. In fact, that manufacturer bragged to others about how it had a monopoly on those parts insofar as 'AAII's' needs were concerned, and was charging whatever it felt . . . 'AAII' decided to look into the 3D printer-manufacturing technique. The result was a better product far cheaper than what the contract manufacturer was offering."
2. 3D able to "print" an exoskeleton, a small child crippled and deformed greatly benefiting in the process:
"2-year-old girl’s bionic arms are the world’s best use of 3D printing"
"this robot exoskeleton can do it for her [lift her arms]. And because it’s 3D-printed out of inexpensive, lightweight plastic, replacement is no big deal when she outgrows it (or if she breaks a part)."
3. 3D printing also at the cutting edge of bio-medical engineering, HUMAN BODY PARTS AND INTERNAL ORGANS AMONG THOSE "ITEMS" "on call".
"That’s correct, scientists are now printing organic material – real, living cells – to create arteries and other tissues, and hoping to eventually print full on organs like kidneys and hearts . . . a 3D printer that uses two inkjet cartridges to print the living goo that makes up your guts. The hacked ink cartridges are filled with live cells and hydrogel, a material that’s sprayed down and forms a scaffolding for the cells to form on. It takes 24-48 hours for the cells to bond and become an organ."
My instantaneous and intuitive thought is CYBORG! That combination of materials, a living organism, electronics, micro-chips and software with profound thinking capability that blend of the human and the machine. Perhaps EVEN A MILITARY KILLING "APPARATUS" ON THE LINES AND ORDER OF A DALEK!
"A cyborg, short for 'cybernetic organism', is a being with both biological and artificial (i.e. electronic, mechanical, or robotic) parts."
"The term cyborg is often applied to an organism that has enhanced abilities due to technology . . . The more strict definition of Cyborg is almost always considered as increasing or enhancing normal capabilities . . . might also conceivably be any kind of organism . . . The term can also apply to micro-organisms which are modified to perform at higher levels than their unmodified counterparts."
"The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants . . . Daleks are cyborgs . . . genetically modified and integrated within a tank-like robotic mechanical shell . . . The Daleks are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination, utterly without pity, compassion or remorse."
A Dalek type cyborg far off in the future? Right now the drones, unmanned vehicles of all sorts and robots with a military application are only machines and not having that mix of biological and material. AT LEAST, for now.
coolbert.
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