I'm waiting for solid-object "printing" to hit the mainstream. It's gonna be WAY cool to break a plastic part on the vacuum cleaner, go to your computer, and download a new one. Sounds far-fetched, but it's really not. These technologies have been in use within the rapid prototyping industry for many years now, and I predict it will make the transition to a consumer technology.
MM
It suspect there will be a market for Kinkos or someone to get into, but I doubt it will pay Joe Sixpack to have a solid object printer for the first 50 years. Just not enough need, and way too expensive and limited in the materials department.
Still this technology has been demonstrated and machines that "print" solid objects out of plastic exist, and as the available build material list grows and the technology gets cheaper you can expect this to really take off.
"These technologies have been in use within the rapid prototyping industry for many years now, and I predict it will make the transition to a consumer technology."
Saw some techs reproducing a 5000 year old spearhead the other night. They took some kind of X-ray of the spearhead (it was imbedded in a buffalo skull) fed it into the computer and the machine manufactured a spearhead out of sprayed plastic a stroke at a time. Amazing.