A small army of volunteers on the Internet working on a machine that can print out new versions of itself.
It has been called the invention that will make global capitalism redundant start the second industrial revolution and save the environment.
A small project that began at Bath University in England, has developed into a small army of volunteers on the Internet, working on an open project that no one owns or controls.
The work is organized remains from the university, where an engineer and mathematician Adrian Bowyer and his development team has great vision.
The machine can reproduce itself
"In principle, the machine can do almost any thing that people want," says Adrian Bowyer to The Guardian.
Invention, they are working on, called RepRap (self-replicating rapid prototyping).
It is a 3D printer that is able to make a copy of itself. Almost.
Some parts of the machine, such as glue and electrical components must be purchased because they are still too complicated for the primitive 3D printer.
The ultimate do-it-yourself technology
"It sounds like a scene from Star Trek, but it is reality, and it develops very quickly," writes Jamais Cascio from Fast Company.
He believes that RepRap is the ultimate 'do-it-yourself' technology, and the machine will change our production system basics.
Not a new invention
3D printers are not a new invention. They have been around for about 20 years but is found primarily in plants because they are very expensive and complicated machines.
The cheapest commercial 3-D printer costs about 150,000 dollars and can not replicate itself.
The revolutionary aspect of the RepRap is that the project, which counts several thousand volunteers on the net, looking to make the 3D printer to trivialized through open and free exchange of ideas.
A RepRap costs about 3,000 dollars in materials. This makes it accessible to local communities in both developing countries and the industrialized world, writes Adrian Bowyer, who started the project in 2005.
Layers of plastic
It is still a relatively primitive RepRap 3D printer. It prints 3D objects by a thread to remelt the plastic, which then added layer upon layer.
As a plain paper printer, RepRap is coupled to a computer. To print a 3D object requires therefore that we have a 3D model of it on his computer.
On the project site is a lot of different parts, as owners of RepRap'ere have printed out. The program includes sandals, imprinteres, doorknobs and martini glass.
New models coming
Currently RepRap limited to objects of a single material.
But volunteers and paid developers working to create the next generation who will also be able to embed electrical components.
Professional 3D printers capable of printing very complicated objects with moving parts.
The potential overwhelming
But it does not change the potential of a popular 3D printer available is overwhelming.
If all goes as the people behind RepRap hope so parents will in future be able to cope with Christmas shopping at home.
Why stand in line at City 2 to buy the new Lego pirate ship when you can find the cartoons online and print it out at home?
The future of sharing
Instead of large companies that manufacture large quantities of consumer goods and distributes them so consumers can even share the design on the Internet and print them out at home.
The implications for intellectual copyright tiger entirety is also large. Even says Adrian Bowyer, it quickly dawned on him that it is not possible to control a machine that can replicate itself and everything else.
One of the founders of The Pirate Bay, Peter Sunde, called RepRap for 'Future of sharing'. Simply.
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