In this talk we take a walk on the wild side and peer into a possible future -- the growth of printing as a manufacturing tool, printers which print themselves, open source hardware, “Spimes” and the need for a new type of developer.

Direct printing covers a number of different technologies, all with one purpose in mind -- the printing of physical goods. This includes the printing of 3D objects on both a macro and micro scale, novel methods of printing and materials, as well as the printing of working electronic circuits -- from chess pieces to hearing aids, and RFID tags to batteries.

The key strength of this technology is that it promises a future where hardware changes are as simple as software changes, thus leading to a potential manufacturing revolution with profound effects for the open source movement.

Printing of objects is a key component of the "Spimes" concept and the "web of things." This talks discusses what are Spimes, what is happening in this field, and provides a future technology roadmap.

It also points to a problem. Software compiles to an instruction set that runs on hardware which can be defined by another instruction set compiled from CAD diagrams. Both instructions set interact to create the required result, which means there are two ways of achieving this.

Do developers of the future need to worry about writing in software and CAD diagrams at the same time, or do we have new languages in some form of Spime Script that is compiled into both physical and digital instruction sets that can make decisions such as where the boundary lies being made by the compiler?