Wired is heavily promoting 3D printing as its Editor in Chief believes it is the next big revolution. Latest piece is related to the recent hot topic of museum photography.
http://www.wired.com/design/2012/10/scanathon/I have made a few trials with 123D Catch myself, mostly of sculptures I have a round the house, with mixed results. Might still go for a 3D printer, even if I don't see immediate imperative uses. But there weren't many uses for a computer when I build my first one. I wonder if this is really something that it's likely to take off in the next 2-3 decades, or if it is simply the nostalgia of having lived through a revolution and wishing for a new one to keep life interesting.
Could be that in 2035, people will complain about dozens of kids and chinese tourits circling the Venus of Milo to take scores of images for their personal replicators and that older guys will remember the good old days when noisy crowds were happy with a couple of flash flattened shots...
