14 DAY TRIAL // Often, the person who invents a potentially game-changing technology is the one most responsible for the hype surrounding it. Not so for the 3D printing industry though, as Charles Hull will all too bluntly tell you.
Unlike other wonders like, say, the Internet, there is no question as to who invented it, because patenting had well and truly matured by the time Charles Hull invented 3D printing 31 years ago.
We're also privileged in that not enough time has passed for the creator of 3D printing to move on to the next great adventure.
Charles Hull is still alive and kicking, and is also deeply involved in the industry segment he created, but he's not as crazy about 3D printing as most other people.
Not that he's losing interest in 3D printing, because he definitely isn't. However, he also feels that the hype surrounding 3D printing technology is overblown.
“I’m very steeped into what can happen in the relatively near term. So I just tend not to pay too much attention when the hype gets too obscure,” he told Michael Silverberg of Quartz in a short interview.
He doesn't deny that the potential of 3D printing is huge, and that most of the things speculated about will eventually happen.
However, he says that 3D printing advancements won't just leap ahead of everything else, because it will be a long time before the tech can do everything alone, if it ever does.
For now, it needs to pace itself according to automation and computing, etc. He says that it's not totally right to use “3D printing” as a substitute word for the whole digital-manufacturing field.
So we're actually looking at an evolutionary process, Hull says, one that will be made of “lots and lots” of minor advances.
Charles Hull touched upon other concerns, like the safety issues surrounding guns and printing human tissue. He said that while the matters did concern him, the bodies responsible to passing and enforcing laws would have to adapt.
Nevertheless, in the short term, 3D printing technology will be used for “safer” things, like the components of the Google Project Ara modular smartphone. Everyone buying one should be able to customize their device. It's basically the concept of a 3D printing service, by order, taken to the logical extreme. Customers will help style their own device, which is what 3D printing was meant to allow.
Some improvement to hardware/software and a boost in 3D printing speed are warranted though, Hull says.