While many rich people often spend
their money on things such as tennis courts and large house, technology “geeks”
often spend their fortunes on ways to help develop technology. One father in
Prague decided to build a plastics lab in his home in order to create a type of
plastic that could conduct electrical currents that can be fed into a basic
home 3D printer. He came up with the idea when his teenage son was trying to do
a science project by printing a 3D rocket and realizing that there was no way
to print it to work with only the types of plastics that are available. This
challenge started a new idea and a new venture for this retired Microsoft
employee. It took about two years to develop and now upon its completion he has
been able to create his own start up to continue to develop useful plastics for
3D printers. This new plastic now allows for circuits and wires to be
printed-all without the need for soldering!
This random decision to create such
a product shows how those few technology minded people that make it into the
top 1% of society tend to use their wealth towards more beneficial aspects of
society such as development of more useful and applicable technologies-even if
they are very far off in the future. Other technological top 1%ers have
developed things such as building a food lab to test certain foods, commercial
aircrafts and other outlandish adventures. These all aim to help society at
some point instead of just lavishing in wealth in ways that do not benefit
other humans.
3D printers have been taking off in
popularity in recent years. Home 3D printers have become more affordable in
recent years but the materials for the printers are very limited. For years the
main focus on 3D printers was on the development of the technology behind the
printers and not what exactly went into the product of the printers. With this
new development in the materials for the printers there are many more
opportunities in what can be developed from these printers. This also helps to
define the shift between technological development to production development.
I thought this was a really
interesting venture. Having many family members and friends who are very
interested in 3D printing but upset with the limits of what can be printed I
can only imagine that this will help to develop the field even further. This
can also be a great way to benefit society with easier to develop medical
devices and trackers that can help with information gathering. I was also very
interested in his reasoning behind developing such a product. In this day so
many people just give up on an idea because it is deemed “impossible” but it
was great to see a father pushing forth with an idea and showing his son that
anything is possible. I am very excited to see what Functionalize will come up
with next and to see how this will change the 3D printing industry.
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