MakerBot Industries

Quick - you've got a MakerBot, lots of plastic, and 24 hours to prevent the apocalypse

Ubiquitous cell phones have forever changed movie plots. ¹  How many plots in pre-1990 movies involved people being cut off from communications with other people at some point?  This just doesn’t happen in movies any more – unless they lose their cell phones in some fashion. ²  The point is that cell phones have to be accounted for in a plot – since they are everywhere, their absence must be explained in some way.

So, how would ubiquitous 3D printers change movie plots? ³  Our hero is trapped in a home with zombie hordes closing in and must figure a way out, armed with nothing but a CAD program and 3D printer.

Just as cell phones have an emergency call button setting, perhaps MakerBots of the future will come with a button for “Zombie Apocalypse Emergency,” “Vampire Invasion Emergency,” and “Virus Outbreak Emergency” buttons on the side.  How else do you think movies will account for 3D printers everywhere?

1. Photo courtesy of Gamp [↩]
2. Robbed, destroyed, dead battery, no reception, etc. [↩]
3. For those of you familiar with Snow Crash, imagine matter compilers everywhere. [↩]