[sudo-discuss] the "Liberator": 3D-printable CAD gun files

[GtwoG PublicOhOne]

Any new technology for manufacturing objects, will find two things among
its first uses:

Weapons. And musical instruments.

Compare a rifle to a guitar: both make ample use of wood and strategic
use of metal in their construction, both entail sensuously curved shapes
that are held close to the body when in use.  One provides a means of
obtaining food and defense; the other provides a means of expressing
creativity.  From their respective positions serving the base and the
near-apex of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, each reaches toward the
center of the scale, playing a role in social cohesion: serving
collective defense, and collective performance.

The aesthetics of these objects, and the making of them, is entwined
with deep and ancient elements of our individual and collective minds.

Today both weapons and musical instruments have become objects of
"rationalized" production on a mass scale, and in conjunction with new
materials (notably plastics), have taken on forms and shapes that are
unlike any previous Earthly creation. 

So when a new technology for manufacturing arises, and comes into the
hands of Everyperson, it is not surprising that Everyperson will wonder
how the technology can be applied to one or the other, or both.

A small-format 3D printer can print a pistol but not a rifle, and can't
print a complete musical instrument that most people would recognize.  A
large-format 3D printer can do all of these things. 

So I predict that when large-format 3D printers come into wider use,
among the first things we will see people produce with them, are musical
instruments with shapes and sounds that are today the stuff of dreams
and speculative fiction.

-G.





On 13-05-03-Fri 9:23 PM, J Clark wrote:
> Yes, guns. I heard that a lot on Saturday when I set up a 3D printer
> on a table at the local farmer's market. People had never seen one, or
> even a product from one. As soon as I explained what my contraption
> was, about 1/5 of them said something about printed guns.
>
> We can do better. We already do better in medicine, chemistry,
> building materials, engineering generally, food, and yes, plastics.
> This is just the beginning. I'm sure Main Stream Media will give us
> plenty more to worry about.
>
> We can do better.
>
>   j.
>
>
> On May 3, 2013, at 4:49 PM, Eddan Katz wrote:
>
>> http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/03/this-is-the-worlds-first-entirely-3d-printed-gun-photos/
>>
>>
>>   This Is The World's First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun (Photos)
>>
>>
>>
>> ...
>>
>> Early next week, Wilson, a 25-year University of Texas law student
>> and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to
>> release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls "the
>> Liberator," pictured in its initial form above. He's agreed to let me
>> document the process of the gun's creation, so long as I don't
>> publish details of its mechanics or its testing until it's been
>> proven to work reliably and the file has been uploaded to Defense
>> Distributed's online collection of printable gun blueprints at
>> Defcad.org <http://Defcad.org/>.
>>
>> All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS
>> plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company
>> Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail that's used as a
>> firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds,
>> using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
>>
>> ...
>> <PastedGraphic-1.tiff>
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