Something that has been eating at my brain a lot lately is that we are still using triangles to represent 3D objects; even where we really shouldn't. Sure, we'

Something that has been eating at my brain a lot lately is that we are still using triangles to represent 3D objects; even where we really shouldn't. Sure, we've gotten really good at it; but at this point it seems like we are starting with a complex smooth shape, approximating that shape with triangles, then trying to make that collection of triangles look like a smooth shape. Can we factor out the triangle step? The most painful part of this experience is 3D printing: millions of people are using mathematical formulas to first construct a 3D object (CSG modeling), then to wrap the object in triangles (export to an STL file), so that a slicer can tell the printer how to fill in the domain of triangles. The triangles are literally inserting themselves into our reality! This introduces a lot of finicky problems: * Sharp edges and flat faces on what was supposed to be a smooth sphere or cylinder * Broken manifolds that result in slicer errors * Holes that get mistakenly filled in by the slicer. * The topology of triangles defining what can and cannot be changed in the object, and where. Back in the good old days™, I could tell POVRay that there is a 2-unit diameter sphere with a 1-unit diameter cylindrical hole in it; and it would go right ahead and raytrace that. If I wanted to do the same in Blender, I could only create a vain approximation of that, spoiled by triangles and entropy.