this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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Despite the tech-cool factor of the project, Tom's Hardware does not condone making your own weapons system at home.

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[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Incredible claims require incredible evidence,

Because it isn't an "incredible claim". ANYONE who has done STEM research in the past 20 years has likely worked on or known someone who worked on a grant related to additive manufacturing. Like, even a lot of the more pure math/CS folk have likely gotten some funding related to that. Even if it is just stealing food from a material science/mechanical engineering buffet table (or they weren't paying attention to what kind of science those big computers were supposed to run...).

Not to mention the massive rise of additive manufacturing in the consumer space which comes from the industrial space which is what said government funding drives.

I told you how to look things up. I didn't look up the specific funding source and country you live in because you have google. And, honestly, you seem like you are just looking for an excuse to not believe this for whatever reason. So I could have used archive.org or whatever to get a list of all the NSF grants from 2005 related to this. And it is very obvious you would have then gotten angry that i didn't do it for 2004 or 2006 and I only did the NSF and not the French equivalent or... We call that "arguing in bad faith", by the way.

Being skeptical is good. Rather than throw a hissy and ignore everything else (where I explained WHY governments want this and even put it into the context of what happens when a war moves beyond subjugating Brown People(TM)), consider actually doing some basic research yourself.

I can't be arsed to remember the major funding sources that UK researchers rely on (been quite some time) but "queen liz science org additive manufacturing" is a good search string.

But hey, if you want to keep believing nobody could possibly have foreseen any of this and all those mechanical engineers with a focus on manufacturing who drove RepRap came out of nowhere and Bambu Labs is the entire reason that there is a pretty big industry based around smaller versions of industry tools... have fun?

Sorry. Do you need me to prove that Bambu Labs exists for you? Or that the UK had a Queen named Liz? Or has royalty at all? Because your tuchus has google.

... Shit. Did you need me to document that there was a World War 2 (which would, of course, require proving that there was a World War 1. And then explaining that most documents on that refer to it as "The Great War" until after the 1940s and...)? Or that stamped metal guns existed? Oh, except that is irrelevant because rifles still tended to have wooden stocks all throughout the war so obviously a discussion of cheap machine guns is irrelevant and people are trying to get one over on you.

[–] DaGeek247@fedia.io 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You've missed my point. Obviously governments fund manufacturing stuff, including 3d printing. Obviously governments also fund research into better war technology, like with boing and everyone else. You've proved the point of that several times over.

What I'm asking for is evidence that 3d printing was funded specifically with war in mind, especially from 20 years ago (as compared to five years ago with the advent of the ukraine/russia war).

When I first asked about this, I didn't think it would be such a hassle, and I had actually hoped to see a neat article about the history of 3d printing and how it's been specifically developed as a way to make better weapons for over twenty years. What I got was scorn, mocking, and questioning of my basic mental capacity because I ... Couldn't do the research myself?

Correlation is not causation. The government funds boatloads of shit that doesn't work out, in the hopes that it becomes eventually useful. The covid19 vaccine was under development since the early 2000s because of swine flu. Is it right for me to say that government expected the swine flu to be used for war purposes because they funded research into it, or would you ask for more details about how the swine flu vaccine was specifically war-related research before beleiving my wild claims?

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

What I’m asking for is evidence that 3d printing was funded specifically with war in mind, especially from 20 years ago (as compared to five years ago with the advent of the ukraine/russia war).

Why would I provide evidence for something I never claimed?

Additive manufacturing (of which FDM is one of the most accessible techniques) has been a MASSIVE funding source amongst world governments over the past 20+ years. And much of the research that made Reprap (et al) came out of scientists who specialized in those technologies for those grants.

I deeply apologize for not being able to argue the point that you made up in your own head due to a lack of reading comprehension. I suggest talking to chatgpt in the future. It will make everyone happier.

[–] DaGeek247@fedia.io -1 points 22 hours ago

From the top since you seem to have forgot;

This is a really cool project and really speaks to the changing nature of warfare. And, once again, highlights the real reason so much money has gone into FDM processes.

If warfare is not "the real reason so much money has gone into fdm" why did you say it was?