How Will 3D Printing Change the World's Cities?

Peirce argues that a future replete with three dimensional printing, where goods can be designed and manufactured individually, could echo "village life in the pre-industrial era, when blacksmiths or seamstresses or carpenters created much of what was needed locally and towns were far more self-sufficient."

The promise of this technology, he says, "could change the future of the world’s cities, perhaps dramatically."

"This could spell big cutbacks in massive container ships and their ports, together with fuel-guzzling truck rigs crisscrossing continents. The United States’ heavy reliance on overseas manufacturing, especially from China, could be cut back dramatically. The carbon footprint of today’s manufacturing and transport could be reduced substantially. 3D involves dramatically reduced waste and use of toxic materials in manufacturing and can ease the demand for such nonrenewable resources as rare earth minerals."

"[T]here’s rarely been a disruptive technology with such positive implications for the welfare and progress of the cities and surrounding regions destined to be mankind’s home through this century and beyond."