Losing Control

Here’s a story I found fascinating. Remember the 3D printing I mentioned not long ago? It seems that there’s a chap who has used a 3D printer to print a gun:

So, can you print a gun? Yep, you can and that’s exactly what somebody with the alias “HaveBlue” did.

To be accurate, HaveBlue didn’t print an entire gun, he printed a “receiver” for an AR-15 (better known as the military’s M16) at a cost of about $30 worth of materials.

The receiver is, in effect, the framework of a gun and holds the barrel and all of the other parts in place. It’s also the part of the gun that is technically, according to US law, the actual gun and carries the serial number.

When the weapon was assembled with the printed receiver HaveBlue reported he fired 200 rounds and it operated perfectly.

The personal computer caused mainframe manufacturers to lose control of computing.

Low cost laser printers caused professional printing establishments to lose control of printing.

The Internet has caused the print and broadcast media to lose control of the distribution of news and other information, something that’s only been accelerated by the advent of social media.

Amazon.com has changed the power structure of publishing. VCRs, then DVDs, then BDs and streaming have changed and are changing the power structure of the distribution of music, movies, and other entertainment.

3D printing has the potential of causing the government to lose control over all sorts of things from guns to pharmaceuticals and beyond.

21 comments… add one
  • Icepick Link

    The government had control over pharmaceuticals? That’s funny to a Floridian! From the Mom-and-Pop pot distributors to the Colombian cocaine Cartels to Pill Mills to Meth Labs, I really find the idea of government control of pharmaceuticals to be laughable. They and the partners they make legal DO get the biggest cut of the action, but that’s far from controlling the market….

  • TastyBits Link


    … Meth Labs …

    The local cooks have been mostly been put out of business with the restrictions on pseudoephedrine. Now we have the Mexican cartels moving tons of product across the border, and they make al-Qaeda look like Girl Scouts.

  • Icepick Link

    The local cooks have been mostly been put out of business with the restrictions on pseudoephedrine. Now we have the Mexican cartels moving tons of product across the border, and they make al-Qaeda look like Girl Scouts.

    They still pop up down here. But the rules are different down here.

    As for the Mexican cartels – we keep replacing one South America drug cartel with another that is even more violent and stupid. I think if we keep it up we’re going to end up with a Coasta Rican drug cartel who nukes everyone that doesn’t buy their product in bulk.

    I’ll also note that Michael Yon has considered focusing on reporting about the Mexican cartels – he seems to think they are much scarier than the Taliban or al Qaeda. So that is at least one vote in favor of your view.

    OTOH, the President and the AG seem to think the Mexican cartels aren’t heavily armed enough, so that’s two votes against….

  • Brett Link

    It really depends on how good the 3D Printers get, and how cheap. I doubt we’ll get to the point where everyone has one in their house, but it could be a huge boon to domestic manufacturing if they can do small runs of just about anything locally at a cheap price (or cheap enough so that it’s cheaper for most people to buy stuff from the 3D Print shop instead of imports from abroad with all their shipping costs).

    That would be a strange world to imagine. The things being shipped long-distance would mostly be commodities and processed raw materials.

  • It really depends on how good the 3D Printers get, and how cheap. I doubt we’ll get to the point where everyone has one in their house

    I remember people saying the same thing about laser printers 30 years ago. Nowadays laser printers better than anything you could get 30 years ago can be purchased at your local store for a couple of hundred bucks.

    A 3D printer can be had today for about $1,600 and a really good one for $16,000.

    At the present state of the art you’re right. A really capable shop could be set up for an initial investment of, probably, less than $30,000 (not including stuff like rent, advertising, and initial operating costs).

  • Brett Link

    What would you use one at home for? How many of the purchases you make now aren’t “perishables” or gasoline, the type of stuff that a printer isn’t likely to replace? I suppose that’s like asking someone in the 1960s why you’d want a computer at home, but I’m still genuinely curious as to what most people would do with one.

  • I suppose that’s like asking someone in the 1960s why you’d want a computer at home,

    I didn’t have a computer at home back then but I did have a terminal with remote access and unlimited computer time. I used it for a lot of the things that people use them for now, e.g. writing papers or letters, keeping records, etc. The lack of software was a pain. If you needed something you’d generally need to write it yourself. No images or music, of course. Storage was at too much of a premium.

    On-demand manufacturing would change the way you think about things. Door on the butter keeper in the refrigerator broken? Print it. Need another chair for that party? Print it. Done with it? Scrap it and use the material for something else.

    People would be less inclined to think about storing things for later use. That would change how dwellings, furniture, etc. were designed.

    Clothing. Toys. Tools. Utensils. There are endless possibilities.

  • Icepick Link

    I suppose that’s like asking someone in the 1960s why you’d want a computer at home, but I’m still genuinely curious as to what most people would do with one.

    Um, for making the receiver for an AR-15? Or an M2 Browning?

  • Icepick Link

    This stuff looks very energy intensive. If we can’t keep energy prices low then I don’t think this can really become a common household technology.

  • Icepick Link

    And speaking of energy, maybe we really should work on that power grid.

  • You are reading the code, Icepick. With plentiful, reliable, inexpensive energy all sorts of things are possible.

  • Icepick Link

    So why are our leaders so hell-bent on making certain energy is anything but plentiful and cheap? (I don’t think the reliability problem here is that bad – yet. But I agree that this is a problem that we would prefer to be over-prepared for.)

  • So why are our leaders so hell-bent on making certain energy is anything but plentiful and cheap?

    Because people don’t like the consequences of cheap energy. We’re scared of nuclear and coal is dirt cheap but also dirty.

  • Icepick Link

    I’m more scared of being poor at this point. Some 15 year-old got shot in the head yesterday evening just around the corner. The parents were driving home from a late afternoon church service when two cars came zooming by them with people hanging out the windows shooting at each other. Having good Chicago gang-banger values (they’re becoming popular all over the place), the idiots doing the shooting managed to completely miss each other but shot a child. At 6:30 in the evening, in broad daylight, driving home from church minding their own business, and their fifteen year-old daughter in the back seat catches a bullet in the head on the mother’s birthday.

    So bring on the coal-fired plants, bring on the nuclear plants, bring it all on.

  • jan Link

    ….sorry to hear about that 15 year old being shot. Random acts of violence are usually out of one’s control. Very sad…..

  • Icepick Link
  • Drew Link

    Icepick

    We need to stop beating around the bush. The left clings to the man because of ideology. Many are afraid to criticize him because they fear that the Michael Reynolds of the world will call them racist.

    But this guy is an incompetent and ineffective executive. Period. In the private sector he would have been given his walking papers long ago.

    No matter what you think of Romney, the economy is a mess, the prospects are dismal, and you absolutely can do no worse than Obama.

  • Icepick Link

    Drew, I agree with you except for two things. First, Obama would get his walking papers and a $20,000,000 golden parachute.

    Second

    No matter what you think of Romney, the economy is a mess, the prospects are dismal, and you absolutely can do no worse than Obama.

    I hold it as axiomatic that it can ALWAYS get worse, whatever it it.

  • …but I’m still genuinely curious as to what most people would do with one.

    Make stuff? The question is when will it get to the point where getting a 3D printer will get cheap enough and easy enough for most people to use.

    On-demand manufacturing would change the way you think about things. Door on the butter keeper in the refrigerator broken? Print it. Need another chair for that party? Print it. Done with it? Scrap it and use the material for something else.

    People would be less inclined to think about storing things for later use. That would change how dwellings, furniture, etc. were designed.

    Clothing. Toys. Tools. Utensils. There are endless possibilities.

    Reminds me of a Charles Stross story where they had “cornucopia machines”…Singularity Sky if I recall correctly. Part of the story was where a civilization that basically was in search of information arrived at a planet where the government tried to keep a lid on technology and distributed cornucopia machines in exchange for information…any information, even just a child’s story.

  • Icepick Link

    I hold it as axiomatic that it can ALWAYS get worse, whatever it it.

    An example to make my point: President Biden.

  • An example to make my point: President Biden.

    And here I was having a nice day….

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