Minecraft: The Future of 3D Printer Design?

For all those who think the best games can offer is an understanding of how to kill monsters with glowing bits: futurist John Robb reckons Minecraft maybe the way for today's kids to figure out 3D printing.

Robb, whose list of achievements is longer than your garden hose but for our purposes will be labeled as 'a prominent futurist' and 'editor of Resilient Communities', noted on his site that Minecraft is a design tool that makes building elaborate objects very easy. Joining the dots, he goes on to write:

"This is interesting because designing and making things using 3D printers is growing fast. However, it’s still tough to get involved. Why? The computer aided design software you have to use in order to design, refine, and print objects in 3D is really hard to use.

"Minecraft may be the way around that impasse. A generation of kids already trained to design and build things in a way that makes them easy to print in 3D. Additionally, it lets them design a big object as a team (and they do)."

He optimistically asserts that these kids, trained in Minecraft, will go on to create just about anything you can buy in your local supermarket "at a level of quality and customization we’ve never seen before". And they'll do it locally, often using recycled materials.

Sounds like a good idea to us.