0.7 21st century technology, digital displacement, and the role of  (Page 7/17)

There are other surprising implications of additive manufacturing. Some researchers are already using 3-D printers to produce simple human tissue, such as skin, muscle and short blood vessels (this is called bio-printing). Food can be produced too. Cornell scientists have already produced printed cupcakes. Are printed hot dogs and pizza next?

The simplest objects can be made on a printer costing less than $10,000. Printers for more complicated products cost nearly upward of $500 thousand or more in 2013, but prices of these, like prices of computers generally, are declining.

When might this technology mature, such that it materially changes supply management, manufacturing generally, and international trade?

Perhaps by about 2020. Fast-paced technological change is already underway from discoveries already made (not those to be made in the future). This is happening in information technology, nanotechnology and biotechnology and the convergence of these fields (see below). In any case, the implications of additive manufacturing for low and middle income emerging nations seem, on balance, ambiguous. Up to now, they have been able to capitalize on low wages for unskilled labor. But new technology could destroy millions of such jobs around the world.

In earlier technological revolutions, the revolution itself also created many millions of jobs. But now, more than ever , a nation’s capability for capitalizing on this technology depends critically on its investment in human capital .

The compelling arguments for programs of investment in human capital are not at all confined merely to the need to cope with the labor-saving implications of additive manufacturing in particular, or digital displacement generally.

Far-reaching technological changes are flowing from new innovations in nanotechnology and biotechnology, and even more importantly, the convergence of these two technologies with information technology (see later sections of this chapter).

All countries, especially emerging nations, will need to stay abreast of these technological innovations both to partake in the abundant benefits that may flow from them and to avoid their negative consequences. To do this, this will require even heavier stress than before on fostering scientific and technological knowledge and know-how in 21st century programs for human capital formation.

We now turn to a discussion of these technological convergences.

Nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology

The newest of these three fields dates only from the early nineties, shortly after scientists at Rice discovered a new form of carbon, called Carbon 60. Even by the year 200, few people outside of research labs had ever heard of the new fields of nanoscale science and nanotechnology.

But by 2014 nanoparticles such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene had become ubiquitous. They are found in sunscreens, clothing, hydrofracking fluids, in diagnostic tools in medicine, and, according to a new Friends of the Earth publication, in 94 food items consumed daily. These include cookies, doughnuts, milk, soy and almond beverages, as well as cereals, candy, crackers and sports drinks.