Propaganda war on 3d printing?

Hello everyone!
I have been hangin around here, reading up on 3d printers in general for a year or so and will hopefully start a delta style build after summer if all is well.

However, back to topic. Is it just me or has anybody else noticed what seems to be propaganda campaign against 3d printers in the media lately? The gun for example. That story is blown way out of proportion and has been given worldwide media coverage. So has a story about printed ammo and now the other day, "3d printers as bad for your health as cigarettes! ..may cause stroke, cardiac arrest and even death!"
As having a tiny bit of insight in how media works I am pretty sure that a subject will not ever get this kind of attention unless someone in charge want it to.
What do you think? Are some people feeling threatened by this new way of producing things or is it just a curiousness for a new culture phenomenon?

That's because 3D printing is becoming increasingly popular and readers thus media generally prefer negative information. What article do you think, that in 3D printing uninterested layman will pick more likely? About advances in that new slicing program, or that 3D printers can kill him? Journalists only wish that they could write that 3D printers will open gate to hell too. Then there are opportunistic politician that seek problems to what they can provide "solutions" and fuel the debate.

There is hardly a propaganda war. I just searched Google US and UK news for "3d printing" . I only read the links on the first few pages but there was only one article that could be considered negative was the study that showed there is a link to health issues caused by some PLA and ABS gasses. though if you read the findings of the study, they don't specifically measure or study consumer based 3D printing, only extrapolating theory. The rest of the articles are the garden variety "3D printing is coming to your desk" and the requisite financial stories. The technology has been around for quite a while and for the big players in industry it's nothing new.

-The result is quite simple:

A WITCH HUNT

simplest of all rules which was aporved by the catholic church during the middle ages, worked for the nazis and the taliban and many other groups as today is one branch in argumentation to give a reason why we are all watched and spied by the " BIG BROTHER" / secret service

if there is no one guilty or at least to blame: find someone !

... in case, that I would need a gun I surely would not print a plastic one ...
there are so many things around - less risky of lower effort then to build a 1 shot .22 gun.

... e.g. everyone handling pipes for houses water supply would be automatically a terrorist supporter

... everyone selling toys is a possible bomb shell supplier

... every RC builder ( yes we already hat our wichhunt here around) - is a possible manufacturer of smart guided weapons


... on the other hand to give someof the arguments back - answere the questions yourselve


...is every politician a LIAR

...is every organization working for profit automatically an EXPLOITER

...is everyone driving a car a KILLER

... is a brick a WEAPON

... is a ballpen a dagger

and so on

Human creativity has rather no limits and anything good for humanity or bad can turned into the opposite!

BUt one thing I surely will do is to to build a casing around the Printer and set a ventilation unit to outside ( when I need ventilation of the cold end I also could provide it via a tubing which goes to outside!!)

There's not only the weapon argument. Here in France some politics are starting to ponder regulating 3D printers because of "the arm it could do to our industry".

Full text here : [translate.google.fr]

Basically, what she seems scared of is exactly (one of) the reasons I want to see 3D printers everywhere : Ability to repair or fabricate your goods yourself. Independence from the (often far abroad) companies factories. Cutting off the monopolies...

If we still wondered who "they" are siding with, that's a quite clear answer (not us, o course).

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Most of my technical comments should be correct, but is THIS one ?
Anyway, as a rule of thumb, always double check what people write.

Lobbyism SUCKS!

I have several CNC for hobby - do I need a printer? - no! do I want one? absolutely!

The local maintenance ( household; electricity etc... could mainly not be done with a REPRAP .... the parts to do this you could purchase in the DIY store next door - so - no argument!

The high tech things you could repair ( at least the scrappy plastics that protects the electronic are mainly NOT made in Europe but Asia
so the lobbyism is not for the manufacturing industry, but for the scrap selling traders and merchants importing that shit . Not an argument , too! Politicians may be symphatic guys - but on a closer look most of them A) Talk about things they don't understand since those whoare understanding it promise them benefits for all ( but mainly for the own pocket) try to manipulate people to get further lobby for their wrong or implemented thoughts and fears C) are always the puppet of one group who plays with the strings and has even economically higher interests than the politicians are able to recognize!

Vive la Revolution :

Liberté - I think would be still liberté, but more as -> Liberté sans lobbyism

Egalité - I think that could be replaced in this case with "pragmatique"

Fraternité - now it should be - " indépendance"


Maybe I should preparently prototype a Guillotine or could this be another "which" to hunt ?
... like ....(Lobbyist: That printers could do tools for torturing..... Everyone : ooooouch )

However - doing everyone a pleasure is something just GOD would be able to (but he usually doesnt do this, for it must be a Hell of effort )

Hj

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2013 07:43AM by Optimist.

The reason for bringing this subject up is that I am worried this might be the beginning of something similar that has happened to the information sharing scene. Obscene laws that give corporations mandate to police the internet, supervision and so on. I would hate to see that but this is a movement of freedom and sharing witch has a tendency to always end up in the line of fire by the establishment.
If you were to speculate this is the case, what do you think they would come up with to stop 3d printers becoming a household item?
Hijacking the source of key components? Are there enough manufacturers of plastic to guarantee supply of filament?
Health hazard, piracy machine, weapon machine, printing of drugs on molecular scale, bio/chem weapons, danger danger!!
What do you think the community could do to prevent it?

i would not worry about the supply of filament, as there are a few developments around the corner that will make it all but obsolete,

preventing regulation/restriction, never going to happen the cat is realistically out of the bag so to speak

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-=( blog )=- -=( thingiverse )=- -=( 3Dindustries )=- -=( Aluhotend - mostly metal hotend)=--=( Facebook )=-

Regarding the sources .. the creativity of human kind helps here to survive ... how many of you have build their machines using "paper clips" and "Nylons" ... This here is one facette of the " Mc Guyver Scene" building a valuable machine from nearly noting expect the electronics.

On the other hand the missuse of the "protyping for all" idea that puts it in a bad light - the same creativity - but - printing guns and so on ...

The way of promotion is the scale that balances the impact of impression to the audience... weighting about good and bad effects and this is why I hate politics and News as the truth is always bent to fit the story they want us so sell!

Creativity is always the fight between GOOD and EVIL, but responsible for all things good and bad is the human intelligience and not the technology!

Tools are stupid .. missuse needs a brain behind!

- My opinion!

Hj

Ok, so answer is no, it is not just me but nothing to worry about?

Correct! It is not just you, but there is nothing (much) to worry about. There will always be politicians and others who want to regulate everything: Sometimes from a misplaced feeling that they are doing right, sometimes to gain power, fame and /or money. They, like the poor, will always be with us, and they, again like the poor, have little real power as people mostly do what they think is right.

A greater worry is the slow increase of technophobia and loss of understanding amongst the general public and the media in the Western world. This is something that none of us can control or predict, real scientific and technical knowledge was thought good in the 1950s and 1960s, and is thought good in much of the Eastern world today, but it almost certainly will be different in a decade - though in what direction is anybodys guess.

One thing is certain though, being paranoid about a percieved 3D printing paranoia will do nobody any good.

Of course though, the first person to print a Weapon of Mass Destruction on his Prusa Mendel is doing nobody any favours.

Mike

leadinglights Wrote:
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> One thing is certain though, being paranoid about
> a percieved 3D printing paranoia will do nobody
> any good.
>

Thank you sir! Now I can carry on sourcing parts for my build and doing my homework on software calibration.

Just had to get it of my chest.

Leadinglights YEPP

Tech understanding goes down the drain and so it will be with our technical leadership of the western world
We are that blind-proud to lead that we forget what leadership means...
Hj

They are using the gun meme. (it IS legal in the US to build your own gun for personal use. You just can't sell/transfer it.) But the REAL story is patten and copyright holders doing the push.

ALWAYS think who will profit and who will lose money from something.
ALWAYS follow the MONEY.

An increase in "technophobia in the Western world"? In a time where technology is changing media and entertainment, where people, particularly younger people carry devices more powerful than the computers of 20 years ago as well as vehicles with systems that are more advanced than avionics were a generation or two ago I don't see how one can make an argument that there is a trend toward technophobia at all. if anything there is a reliance that in many cases is substantially codependent with technology that what were once basic skills, for example math and language, are being supplanted by the convenience of the device. Technology is the reason one can read the negative stories about 3D printing. Technology has made the world a much smaller place not only in terms of travel but in communication as well. Voices that were once heard only locally, or not heard at all can have a worldwide audience. That does nothing to speak to the merits or foundation of any opinion or argument but only to provide a platform for expression where there was none prior.

Love of the products of technoligy does not imply love of technology. Many people protest at any sign of science, mathematics, technology or engineering as if confronted by somthing unclean, but love their iPhones, televisions or cars. It would probably be accurate to say most people.

Confusing technophobia with the fear of the products of technology is like confusing the fear of sex with the fear of people. - the product of sex.

Mike.

There's a lot of difference between technophobia and understanding how technology works. People generally don't t care how technology that they use everyday works. Look at technical shows/documentaries in TV, they are becoming less and less "technical". Look at promotional materials of car manufacturers. Once I was interested in how BMW's xDRIVE works, I was only able to find primitive promotional videos saying that their system is the best, no technical details. People that are into cars don't understand basics, like what is difference between engine power and torque, etc. I think that was the point. And people that don't understand are easily manipulated.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2013 07:12PM by miso.

MISO I'm with you - definitely!


So, memo to me ...

Lobbyism sucks ..

it is like corruption without taking money

AND

consumption stultifies and eliminates any interest than consumption! ...

- Characters with no interest are weak characters!


... any more principles of behaviour of the human being?

I think that anybody messing around with 3D printers is, almost by definition, a technophile, geek, maker or whatever, so we are preaching to the converted when we complain about people being less knowledgable than we are. As to the degree by which they are less knowledgable or more phobic, I say again: This changes with time. For example:-

In the 1900s a popular display in stands at trade fairs was a tap in mid air with water running from it into a bowl - no visible pipe to the tap. Fewer than 50% of people then found this strange - most had little knowledge of pipes. By the 1960s, most people who had never seen this trick were intrigued.

In the late 50s I when I was about 12, most young boys knew how a petrol engine worked in some detail - even knowing about the metals of the exhaust valves etc. In late 1990 I overheard a small group of you lads talking about engines - one asked what the valves were that an engine had 16 of. Another said that they were little glass bottles - nobody corrected that.

But not all is bad, in the 60s only 10% of Americans read more than one book a year, but by 1995 50% of Americans read more than 2 books a year.

Swings and roundabouts.

But from the view of interest reading feeds the hobby of reading.... ( if you'd count the websites and papers I read per year there are some books in sum

Theoretically doing thing keeps save and warm and prevents from misstakes and negative Impact.

But it also keeps from the doing itself!

But ist like the forum shows books without doing are like a bumble bee that - so it is written physically could not fly ... but the insect was not able to read - so it just did it and it worked.

What I want to say i,s that books are someway a way of manipulation, too!!


Doing is the healer that verifies ( in and for the single case) that the written text is true and at what percentage!

- That is why I still hate politics - a chain of letters and paragraps or just lingual transportation of information
one drops a fact or subscribes it the way he understood it informally the other takes it his way and what comes out is that
people could print a fusion reactor, or PLA is equal to Dioxine from the point of toxicity at maximum override on diplomacy!!

A true story needs veryfication loop for loop not just talking but doing which is relates to the rules of the world and not to the mouth
putting it out!

my 2 Cents...

Hi Optimist,

Most of what you say is true, but it is still nothing to worry about. Most people - including the anti -science anti-technology brigade know that most things politicians say are rubbish. Most (or more than 50%) spend some of the time thy are not doing harm doing useful things for their constituents - which is why we put up with them at all.

As far as technology goes, only a few years ago the number of people who tinkered in the field of 3D printers was close to zero. FDM printers and a great number of others that I know about* have benefitied hugely from the input of amateurs. This, to me at least, looks like a cause for celebration and shows that while one limb withers, others are growing.

Mike

* Other areas that I have followed where amatuer input have been model aircraft, aerodynamics of small wind turbines, cheap but efficient alternators for wind turbines, "Outrunner" brushless DC motors.

Hi Mike!

first - from the profession side - I'm pretty much involved in most of the last toppics you mentioned .

- ( we build fans, generators and outrunners and DC brushed and brushless motors ... as our founder is so to say the " father of the modern compact fan") and one of my Hobbies RC Modelling



However - I feel that just those People, that do not have the time to dig into a topic, -do not fully understand the background or the
principle of how things work - are the same who use the so saved time to talk about just this things they don't have an idea about! And so publish lot of hypthetically possible things which also could lead to harm or other hypotheticall possible scenarios which then could be dangerous... B..llsh..t!

Less talking more understanding would be a better way! It is absolutely superb that amateurs or cross thinkers or others help to raise things, ( as I'm still a newbie to 3D printing I'll try to take my part ) but all those have tried to understand -simply spoken- at least a basement on what they stand stand to lift something forward or finally just over their head. ( and at the same time they grow with the knowledge - what I would call personal evolution with related innovation for all human being)


Hj

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2013 06:28AM by Optimist.

leadinglights Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Confusing technophobia with the fear of the
> products of technology is like confusing the fear
> of sex with the fear of people. - the product of
> sex.

Technophobes by the very definition do not adopt these devices. In fact in the case of the Luddites during the industrial revolution they tried to destroy them. Technophobia is an irrational fear or violent opposition to the use of technology.

Hi vegasloki,

I have to plead guilty to the incorrect use of the word "technophobia". In mitigation, most of the on-line dictionaries have a variety of definitions, some close to the way I used the word, others very similar to the definition that you used. My sole culpability is the omision of the words "the use of" in your definition. I don't think anybody on these forum would misunderstand my use of the word taking the context in which it was used.

Of course, if you want to use the forum to argue about the minutiae of word use, I can do a quite a bit of railing about the sloppy use of once rigorous words: Todays word being grossly misused is "metadata".

Mike

The way I see it is that some entities will use their power to undermine what is emerging from this community and I am not alone as it seems. Who, why and so forth is a matter of speculation until further investigation might shed some light on it. I am spending my vacation roofing so my time is limited but I will take a look and see if I can find out more about the alarm reports later. Meanwhile I think it would be a good thing to keep a discussion going on to spread awareness amongst people involved what we probably will face the upcoming years. If the right people get interested in following up on "new research suggest"articles in the news interesting connections might be found. I am not that person but my contribution might be this thread if t can be of any benefit.
Me and many more here do not have english as our first language so please let us have a liberal attitude to written english and if something is not understood or confusing just ask.

The benefits of 3D printing and the possibilities it presents for the future outweigh the risks associated with giving everyone access to a 3D printer. Anyone in the RepRap community I am sure would agree, so I don't think I need to elaborate on this point.

I also hold the belief that there is no way open source 3D printing could be snuffed out by an organization this far down the road. The fact that these printers are largely self replicating, and that anyone can gain access to (or write their own) software to make what they want with them would make it extremely hard to restrict their usage. I think the most damage could be done to the community by restricting the vitamin suppliers, but as has been mentioned in this thread, RepRap is using less and less vitamins in its printers each year.

As 3D printing becomes more widespread, and hits mainstream consumer use, the hype behind the dangers of enabling people to make whatever 3D shape that they want out of a variety of materials will probably fade. It doesn't take a lot of persuasion to get people excited about 3D printing, so I for one am not worried about what the media says. Whenever someone asks me if I heard about that 3D printed gun that works I ask them if they heard about that 3D printed trachea that saved the life of a baby.