3D Printing Tech? - As imagined in Sci-Fi

[Sackboy]

Hello all,
Fresh member here, in need for your help

As an interaction designer and a Sci-Fi fan, I am exploring how 3D printing experience is delivered and imagined in Sci-Fi Movies, TV Shows, and Literature. There is no specific timeline - I am looking for any information and examples that are relevant - old and modern.

For example - the Replicator machine:
Obvious to any Star Trek fan would be the three iconic words used by Captain Jean Luc Picard to summon his hot beverage of choice: “Tea, Earl Grey, Hot”. The simplicity of the (voice) interaction as seen in sci-fi movies, in addition of getting the expected outcome, is far from the experience offered in todays consumer-targeted 3d printing machines.

More examples would be the Craving machine (as presented in "the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy" movie), and Matter Compilers in Neal Stephenson's - The Diamond Age.

So basically,
Any reference to technology regarding the making-of-things, that is taken from Sci-fi, would be much appreciated. Let's explore together !

 

[Av Demeisen]

3D printing ("fabbing") is very much present in William Gibson's latest novel The Peripheral.

 

[Hobbit]

And in Ian McDonald's Luna. There you pretty much print whatever you want: clothes, weapons, furniture...

 

[Sackboy]

Thanks @Hobbit , @Av Demeisen, will definitely look into those.

 

[Westy]

Also in KSR's Aurora - input various chemicals and products, output pretty much whatever you want. Doesn't explain how it works though!

 

[Hobbit]

Doesn't explain how it works though!

To be honest, Westy, I think that that's how it's going to be in books of this nature. Do you need to normally explain how a printer works in a story? It's just taken for granted: as some are suggesting 3D printers will be, one day.

 

[jason10mm]

Hamilton features 3D printing a fair amount in "Great North Road" as a bit of a survival tool. I'm trying to remember if Weir used them in "The Martian". I don't think so.

I'm not sure most folks are really aware of how 3D printing actually works. Seems like it will take over from nanobots for "automagically" creating complex things out of less complex raw materials. Lots of sci-fi has robotic refineries consuming raw materials and pooping out refined goods, 3D printing is one of the intermediate steps in getting that to actually happen, IMHO.

See it a fair amount in movies too. IIRC "Fifth Element", "Prometheus", and a few others have biologic 3D printing.

 

[phil_geo]

I can't emphasize enough how much Neal Stephenson predicted 3D printing in his book The Diamond Age. Years before it was viable, he came up with details about how the machines would work, and it was scientifically descriptive of the exact way today's 3D printers work. He gave details about machine size, functionality, coding, etc. It was very impressive. I think I even have a thread about it somewhere. The point is that he didn't just say "It's a magic box and makes stuff" like Star Trek, he answered all the technical difficulties to the point where he could have built one or at least gotten a patent on one.

 

[Jussslic]

I can't emphasize enough how much Neal Stephenson predicted 3D printing in his book The Diamond Age. Years before it was viable, he came up with details about how the machines would work, and it was scientifically descriptive of the exact way today's 3D printers work.

It's just more proof that Anathem wasn't fiction, and that Stephenson's is actually an Incanter getting all his best information from "up the wick."

Really though, I think there's some truth to that. I bet Stephenson reads a lot of academic journals. He seems to have an incredible talent for taking ideas directly from the scientific literature, and incorporating them into fiction long before they ever touch the mainstream. Additive manufacturing was already in its infancy by the early 80s, a decade before The Diamond Age was published. But Stephenson has been unbelievably good at identifying those game-changing ideas early on, and extrapolating their potential. "Look, this is cool now, but wait until you see it in 30 years!"

Alastair Reynolds' Pushing Ice also has a form of 3D printing---"Forge Vats." Pretty similar to the printers in Aurora from the sound of it.