You're Doing It All Wrong

Stanford's Andrea Lunsford (L), one of five writers proving Everyone's An Author.

You know the place.  The vacant lot.  The backyard.  The driveway with a basketball hoop.  That neighborhood venue where kids congregate to play. Then along comes an adult who figures out the game isn't being played by FIFA or NCAA rules.  With the best of intentions, this mom or dad steps in to "improve" things.  They want leagues and brackets and sponsored jerseys.  Over time, 4th graders are playing for "sportsmanship" and "most improved" trophies.  And the fun of the neighborhood pick-up game is gone, stolen by people who invited themselves.

Digital Poop

ISS Commander Barry Wilmore displays the first object 3-D printed in space

This week, NASA tested a 3-D printer in space.  An on-demand machine shop is a pretty incredible tool if you want to get to Mars.  A couple of years ago it was widely reported that we'd all have such devices in our homes by now.  Turns out it was a little ambitious to think we'd be fabricating toaster replacement parts in the basement.  Still, you can probably have a decent one out of the box and working for about $1000.

The obstacle to ubiquity isn't affordability.  It's creativity.  Jessica Banks, CEO of RockPaperRobot says "it might be that many people get their 3-D printers and they're like 'This is going to be awesome.  I can make everything in my life.' And what do they do?  The make a spoon."  Spoons are the sorts of objects Banks refers to as "digital poop."