It's not that I think the utility of the general public making things at home isn't attractive. It's that 3D printing, in current forms, will be obsolete by the

It's not that I think the utility of the general public making things at home isn't attractive. It's that 3D printing, in current forms, will be obsolete by the time it's able to do this. People have been trained, and with Apple even more, to like beautiful things that combine multiple materials, the latest electronic hardware, and great packaging. To believe this, you'd have to this we've got at least: - plastic/metal in the same machine - most likely simultaneously unless people are going to assemble it. - home printable silicon, maybe they could ship it in, but I feel like that defeats the point - they could just ship the device then. Both of these are really hard material science problems that require tons of research. The process/materials that 3D printing provide can do none of those things right now - probably not for 10+ years. So, I think all these RepRap clone guys who think, like GNU/Linux, they'll be able to go RepRap -> ? -> Replicator, are a bit naive / hyping it. They should be creating things that compliment the 3D Printer - like a laser cutter like this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nortd/lasersaur-open-source-laser-cutter-0 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nortd/lasersaur-open-sou...