Institute For The Future

3D models from Second Life

A few days ago in my future of manufacturing piece, I speculated that in a future of flexible, rapid manufacturing, gaming skills might prove useful in unexpected ways:

 

Where will these workers come from? Where will they have learned the skills necessary to do well in this world? The unexpected but most likely answer is online games. Part of the appeal of massive multiplayer games like Entropia and Second Life is that they allow players build all kinds of interesting virtual stuff, from bodies to buildings. Turns out they're fun-ride versions of computer-aided design and computer-aided architectural design systems. Thanks to these games, a generation of kids is becoming intimately familiar with design and manufacturing - skills that, thanks to 3D printing, can move straight from the living room to the factory floor. In other words, countries with the most advanced game cultures today may take the lead in rapid manufacturing tomorrow.

It appears that the future may be jumping the shark. Gizmodo reports on a new service that lets you create models of objects you create in Second Life:

Those amongst you who spend all your waking time on Second Life: rejoice! Simon Spartalian and Mike Beradino of Recursive Instruments are launching a milling service for SL users on June 1, so you can have actual physical representations of your avatar, builds or favorite SL objects made out of anything from foam to wax to stainless steel, up to 9'x5'x5'.

As 3pointd writes,

Part of the goal of the project is to bridge the virtual and the real 'by developing a cultural authority in the virtual that till now has been reserved for the physical,' Spartialian says. The service will allow residents to create physical objects that can take on personal importance or perhaps even come to have financial weight around the edges of SL's in-world markets.

 

The Recursive Instruments blog has lots of geeky goodness.

 

[hat tip to Jason]