Guest post by Jerry Mooney

Most of us have heard of 3D printers by now, even if we’ve never actually seen one. We generally have a basic idea that there is a machine that can make things, much like a printer reproduces ink images on paper, but with dimensions. Even though we might basically know what a 3D printer is, the extent to which this technology might be disruptive is more obscure.

Before we all panic and get our torches and pitchforks out to skewer Frankenstein’s monster, let’s remember that all of the great innovations in history have been disruptive at first. Democracy disrupted monarchy. The car disrupted horse breeders. Email disrupted the postal service and the envelope manufacturers. Economies get disrupted by innovation and that’s how they advance. Few people are crying that Edison put lantern makers out of business.

So what is this disruptive technology? A 3D printer does not merely produce a replica of a thing, but can produce an actual thing. And these things range from houses to body parts to buttons and everything inbetween. At first I didn’t see this as a disruptive device, merely a Play-Doh Playstation on steroids. Neat.