At some point in human history, if you needed something, you either bought it, made it by hand, or accepted that you simply could not have it. Then the 3D printer arrived and dismantled all three of those options. Now, if you need a specific bracket for a shelf that has not been manufactured since 2009, you simply make it at home, before lunch.
The 3D printing community has taken this freedom and run with it in every possible direction. Some of what they have produced is just plain brilliant, solving real problems with a little bit of lateral thinking. Some of it is completely unnecessary and deeply impressive for exactly that reason. All of it is proof that giving humans access to a machine that turns ideas into objects is one of the better decisions the technology industry has ever made.
