Over the last few days I’ve been printing all sorts of stuff with the new Makerbot Replicator. My kids are throwing requests for printing all sorts of items at me such as rockets, pigs, and the occasional odd item. Their introduction of the concept of making your own things is completely natural to them. They are excited by watching the printing but casually tell their friends ‘that is our thing printer.’

I ran across this blog post that captures a wonderful glimpse of 3d printing in the context of an educational setting and how our kids have surpassed us on this front already. It happens so quickly. For my human overlords (parents) there were personal computers and now smart phones; for theirs there was the automobile. For geek-kind, these leaps in technology define our generations. And here is this new thing printer. I’m already thinking about how this could be made to print anything and print faster using technologies that with a little Googling are in place.

If you are my generation, y’all better hold on. This is going to be big and we won’t realize it until it has already happened.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing my parents in a few weeks and observing their reaction to this (they are in their mid-60s); not to mention my in-laws (in their 80s). My father-in-law is an engineer (Ga Tech) and my father a life long hands on tinkerer and restorer. I’m really wondering what they will want to design and prototype with this new thing in our toolbox.