I, as one person, can design and produce a product. That goes for nearly everyone else on the planet, granted, some will need assistance in creating the 3d model and printing, but they won’t need a huge design team, office support, machine shop and distributers.
That opens up the world to a whole new realm of possibilities, people will be able to bring their ideas to fruition, everyone and anyone, not just people with money. New products, knick-knacks, art, architecture, tools. Everyone has an idea, something they want, now we can make it and we don’t have to go to a foreign country to have it built.
There are already services that will print your product up in most materials and print shops will be opening up in every neighborhood. The patent office failed us and trading with other countries failed in protecting our intellectual property, now we will have some control over it.
The affordable 3d machines aren’t very good yet, but they are getting there.
But when everyone has an idea then who’s going to buy your idea? And where are the jobs when most of the stock of Target is downloadable?
There’s a lot of neat and awesome stuff with the coming wave of technology. There’s also a serious change to the basics of how things work coming.
And forget your IP. Just look at Pirate Bay to see what’s going to happen when your ideas get digitized to be printed by the buyer. They wind up shared, and people get if for free. Lossless copying render IP a thing of the past.