Additive Manufacturing in 2040: Powerful Enabler, Disruptive Threat.

AuthorJohnston, Trevor
PositionFURTHER READING

* The pages of magazines such as this one often extol the goodness that 3D printing--also known as additive manufacturing--can bring to the national security realm. But the authors of this RAND Corp. report warn that the technology has "the potential to dramatically disrupt the prevailing state system and international order."

While that may sound a bit alarmist, they make a case that the low-cost manufacturing technology, coupled with automation and artificial intelligence--the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution--could throw millions of workers in unstable countries out of work, creating widespread unrest.

Further, the free flow of manufacturing material and digital designs could allow terrorists to make their own weapons, such as swarms of low-cost drones that could attack in mass. Hackers could...

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