Direct Writing

There has been an explosion in new technology over the last couple of decades. In terms of computer aided design (CAD) there has until recently been a gap between what can be designed and what can be manufactured. This has meant that a lot of small and intricate computer designs could not be produced via rapid prototyping. Now a new development called Direct Writing will enable us to create just about anything from a 3D CAD design to a working prototype. This includes nano-scale devices, multi-purpose space toolkits and even living cells.

So this technology may impact most industries in the near future. Is this going to mean replacement parts for surgery grown from the patient's cells and pills created to order or are we going to create cybermen and intelligent robots that are used as weapons? Another possibility is teleportation. If the whole body could be scanned and recreated together with a downloaded consciousness then it would be feasible to deconstruct and construct people from point A to point B. This would be at lease 50-100 years away from now.

It is interesting to note that there is a large demand for CAD specialists now and good money. Yet there are fewer and fewer people who wish to enter engineering or the hard science from school. So we may come to a point where it is worth school leavers to reconsider their decisions to enter the media, psychology or arts if a lot of the work is going to be elsewhere by 2020.