 Well, welcome back. The two o'clock block here on a Friday. Time for likable science. It's likable science. And it's exciting, okay? And here's Ethan Allen, our likable scientist, our host. You know, and we have collaborated on picking a topic today that will wow you, okay? And that is about 3D printing. There was an article that appeared a day or two ago in one of the Internet journals about 3D printing. Not just 3D printing, but 3D printing a house. Okay? And let me just spoon that out. This is an article with a video showing you with time-lapse photography how you do this. You build a house. You build a house in Russia, a company called APIS, A-P-I-S Core, C-O-R, in Russia. Here's a picture of it. There's the house that they built. And you'll see the crane inside operating like a printer. You don't see any people, no people involved in this. The thing does it all by itself. And guess what? It builds this house in 24, count them 24 hours in the snow, in the cold vibe. For $10,000. For $10,000 American dollars. Okay? Now, there's a set of facts, Ethan. What does that mean to us? Well, yeah. I mean, it has, clearly, if you're thinking of going into the construction business these days, and you're a young person, you've got to look at that and say, huh, what's going to happen to my job tomorrow? Because if these machines can do this, can build one machine, can build one house in 24 hours. And these are transportable, right? That's a crane affair that we saw in the movie. The other part of the video shows it being trucked around in a truck. You could take it from one location to another. It takes about an hour to set it up. An hour to set it up and 24 hours to build the house. You've got a house, put it back down, take it to another site, another hour to set it up, 24 hours. The implications are enormous, enormous. I mean, just take a look at the homeless problem, right? You can provide, you can pay a lot of public welfare money to a homeless family, but how about for $10,000, which they would use up pretty quickly actually. You can build them a house. They're not homeless anymore. And it's beautiful. It's a nice house, really well designed. And I suspect here in Hawaii, if you've thought about your houses very well, you could build them for a lot less in terms of materials costs. Unions would never have it. Because they're talking about needing serious insulation for a house there. Right. I bet you're right. Yeah. A part of the movie shows you how they install installation also with a 3D printer. But here we don't need that. They have double wall construction with installation. We can have single wall construction. It would be faster and cheaper than $10,000. Probably going to take 12 hours and $5,000. Who's going to tolerate this? We got a whole infrastructure, union, construction guys that have to make a lot of money. How could we ever do this, say, for $8,000 or $7,000? We talked about this, if you recall, some weeks ago, about as automation gets to be more and more, there's sort of social obligation to retrain the people whose jobs are being disappeared by these automated systems. And we can here's a great example of what's going to be one of those systems coming right up. I'm sure there was an operator. We didn't see him in the video. But one operator, one operator and this machine and somebody to connect, well, maybe the same guy could connect the materials to the machine and there you go. And the rest of it is all computer driven. Yeah. A few people have to write the programs and set all that up. And if you say, yeah, some people connecting and disconnecting the hose is a proper time. It's a template. It's a standard house. So once you wrote the program and put the crane in place, a little affair, okay, you can just do it the same every time. Then the operator goes through the same routine every time and bingo, 24 hours a house, a house, a house, a house. I'm pretty sure the guy who's connecting and disconnecting the hose is you have a robot doing that. Connecting the hose for the different building materials and all, yeah. I mean, it really boggles the mind, the possibilities here, not only in Russia, I mean, I'm not sure what the homeless situation is like in Russia, but with the homeless situation in this country, we could make a real dent on homeless with really nice houses. You'd like this house. And gee, I mean, there are inside pictures we could find also in that video showing you what it looks like when it's done and it's a nice house. But, you know, it's just amazing because just four or five years ago, 3D printing was, well, it was interesting. Your printer basically could only do one or two materials. You had very limited things. You could build interesting shapes and models, but nothing really very functional because it would only do one or two kinds of plastic or whatever you did metal. But now these things can handle multiple kinds of stuff. Well, let's talk about the, you know, all the things that go into this. And clearly, you know, we have this robotic type software that lets that crane go around all by itself. I mean, the operator only has to turn it on, right? I mean, he doesn't have to, you know, direct it because it's all already directed. It's all automated. So you let it run for 24 hours. It's done. Go to the next one. So it's computer software and it's good. And it's running a crane, which has got to be a lot of engineering in the crane. And that's good. It's miniaturized compared to a regular construction crane. And then, of course, and this is what I want to ask you about, material science, you know, then now they're pouring concrete. It's not like one of these, you know, out-of-the-box printers you can get and best buy. Right. This is right. This serious material hookup to paint to concrete insulation to dry insulation to solid insulation. Yeah, the flexibility of that system appears phenomenal. If you're doing this next thing, get this system and have it build your car. Why not, you know? Well, yeah. I mean, it does lead to that. Right. You know, I just remember there was an exhibit at APEC. Thank you. About three or four years ago. And the United States Navy had the exhibit. They used the printing with materials that actually hardened to steel or titanium hardness. I mean, it's really hard. You can use it for airplane parts. You can use it for weapons of war if that's what you wanted or anything. And so, you know, do we need to have a factory that fabricates steel pieces? You know, you could see it at APEC right there. And so that must be even more advanced now. So, you know, Donald Trump talks about, you know, resuscitating American manufacturing. Well, while he's saying those things, fact is that global manufacturing is changing. Right. The whole field is, as you say, changing very fast. And we were talking about this a little bit before the show. We were about the basis of stocking inventory of parts and things and how this just sort of changed that whole landscape when this is a build-on-demand system being shown here is similar to Amazon's print-on-demand, right? Yeah. Yeah. Just, yeah, you don't have to bring your whole crew of construction guys all in and bring all the parts in from different places. Yeah. Yeah. But the Navy didn't have to have, didn't have to call on a factory. They didn't have to be a factory for a lot of things, many, many things, inventory things for, you know, for the things they needed them for. And, you know, what's found interesting is you could have this gear. It was expensive. And I remember it was very expensive, which you could have this gear right there at the facility on the base. You didn't have to call anybody, write anybody. You didn't have to wait for delivery. You could create this part on the base right there with your own people and have it immediately. Now, that's something. That means that there's no need for a factory. Right. Anywhere. Right. So, if you envision, again, taking the Navy example, so you put a few of these on a Navy ship to manufacture shells through gun shells or your missiles, and you don't need to stock a lot of them on the ship. And as long as you have the raw materials that are stored in tanks in the battles of your ship, you know, you can keep producing this stuff for a long while. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, it's interesting. You go to the Innovation Center at UH Manoa. They have a little part of the room. It's sort of a big room. And it allows for innovation. And part of the room is a 3D printer. I guess that's to print out the advanced models, the design models, proof of concept kind of thing. And the printer's about yay big. And they use pretty high tech stuff, but they're not at the frontier of the technology. And the frontier like this APIS core, that's way far away from anything you'd find around here. And so take the materials, take your imagination, take engineering ability, and the engineering school could get involved in this. And you can manufacture anything you want. And houses, I mean, between the little box like that and the house where somebody could live, there's all kinds of other stuff, right? Right. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Everything goes in the house, can be manufactured. They talk about the 3D printing being used now in the pharmacology industry to build sort of multi-drug combinations, pills within pills within pills as it were, that can be exquisitely targeted. You've got just all kinds of stuff. That's another element. It's the nanotechnology. Oh, yeah, right. So it's very big or very little. Right. This harks back to the days when they first started building and still build circuitry. Silicon wafers, they're literally printing layers of atoms and then a different layer of different material and then etch some out of the one and then put on another layer and then etch out a different pattern. It's rather similar, although now you get that whole system automated again, the way these guys do. And you could probably be cranking out circuit boards. Sure. Much faster. Sure. And PS, one thing, some of the materials we've been exchanging involved an MIT newsletter article about putting a charge on one atom. I don't know if you noticed that one, you can charge one atom with electricity, one atom. So now we talked about graphene before. One atom thick sheet which can take a charge and you stack them up and you can have a lot of them in a space of two or three inches. But I think this technology goes even further than that. So A, you can put a charge on for like a computer. You can have a processor that is, gosh, really, really, really small. Talk about the internet of things. Or you could make batteries, for example, along the lines of graphene. We have put the charge on one atom. And so this nanotechnology combined with biochemistry and all that, it's just fabulous what can happen, what will happen. Now, I think it opens a whole discussion because of this APIS core. Where did this happen? Who did this? Who did the technology? Who organized this? Yeah, that was what was intriguing to me when I saw that that was being done in Russia. And some Russian group doing it. And we don't tend to think of the Russians as being exactly sort of the leaders in the high-tech field. But that's high-tech. I think they're the leader in software hacking. They really are. I mean, the country is filled with people who can do very sophisticated things. And the word went out. This is what I remember reading. The word went out before the election and all that stuff they did in the election, looking for hackers. The Russian government was looking for hackers. They found them in various places, incentivized them, paid them, put them in dark rooms to do government projects, state projects, probably state hacking, including in that. And so the fact is they found, they recruited, they organized this enormous group of hackers all across Russia, from Vladivostok to Moscow. And they do what they want to do. And since computing and the Internet of Things is global, this gives them leverage that we don't really have. I don't think we have that. Yeah, no. I was reading some interesting materials about the difference in the social media of the Democrats, Republicans, and the patterns of post-Semite, they were completely different and very suggestive of the fact that there were essentially bots going through and doing a lot of the conservative stuff. Basically, this was all automated, too. When you start putting all the disciplines together, possibilities are enormous. And people all around the world have these disabilities and these abilities, these multidisciplinary abilities to create these things. And it's not just the U.S. That's my point. The Russians are apparently not only a geopolitical tear and not only a an attempt to manipulate elections in the U.S. and in Europe, but they're on a tear in technology also. They want to be big time in the world. They want to return to form a greatness. Let's make Russia great again. They're doing it. Of course, yes, one of the ways they can do that is to destabilize the other powers that we and throw kinks in the work for all of them. Yeah, right. It's an unfriendly competition. That's what it is. Well, I got to deep breathe after this conversation. Let's take a short break so we can do some breathing and come back. All right. Aloha. This is Gordo the Texar here at Ibachi Talk. I want to thank you guys for joining us every week from one o'clock in the afternoon to 1.30 Hawaii time where we talk about tech. But this year, we're kind of branching out and we're talking about all other interesting kinds of facts and figures. And Andrew, my security guy, will be joining us as he always is, giving us a weekly security tip. And we will also then have Angus giving us some gadgets and some things that's really starting to irritate his okole. So we're going to have him coming out as well. Anyway, Drew, do you have anything you want to say? Glad to be here, man. Happy to help. There we go. Thanks again. Ibachi Talk. We'll see you soon. Aloha. I'm Kaui Lucas, host of Hawaii Is My Mainland every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. I also have a blog of the same game at kauilukas.com where you can see all of my past shows. Join me this Friday and every Friday at 3 p.m. Aloha. Okay, it's all about science, likable science, you know, and you missed it during the break. Ethan was telling me about another incredible discovery they made over, and this is a medical issue, about dementia. Dementia is linked to what? Air pollution? Air pollution, specifically to very fine particulate matter, so-called less than 25 micron sized particles that go deep into your lungs, get into your bloodstream very quickly, but apparently also cause inflammation to brain cells and glial cells and are now strongly associated in a number of different studies, both sort of not direct causality yet that hasn't been established, but strong correlations. People who live near major roadways within 50 yards of major roadways develop more severe dementia at earlier ages than people who live more than 200 yards from roadways. The dogs in Mexico City turned out to develop dimension-like brain effects. They'd be in a lose their abilities, they'd eventually lose their abilities to recognize their owners, even, and upon death they see these dogs have these so-called plaques and tangles in their brains very much like what dementia patients have. Just a number of different lines of study are all sort of converging on this, that this is an unrecognized danger to us, and guess what? Hey, we're getting ready to dismantle the EPA. Yeah, it's not fun. It reminds me of an article recently about a lake in California that's drying up and they haven't been attending, you know, to it. They could save it, they could save the area by replanting around it, but instead it's turning out to be a dust ball. And because of the composition of the earth and the bed of the lake, the dust that is generated is very fine. And so this has a horrendous effect on people, especially kids, because you ingest this and you can't get it out, you can't cough it out. Right. And you get respiratory problems that really don't go away. It coats your lungs and there's no way to get rid of it. Right. And we are living in a world like that. We are. And I think it goes to show what a small world it is, you know, the recent articles that have been appearing about lead levels in Hawaii's kids and how there was a big spike in 2012 that nobody can sort of say what happened really seems to me the only reason explanation is that we were getting a bunch of fine lead particulate dust came over Hawaii right right at that point and everyone's breathing it on in all the kids. Yeah, which show a nice spike probably from some mining operations or some smelting operations in China or India or somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, the bottom line of that discussion we had during the break is that there's a relationship between your environment and your health because we knew this before, didn't we? It's not a surprise. But here's, you know, living proof of it coming again and again. Right. And so we live in a global village and to take down the EPA is not only, you know, bad global citizenship, it's bad national citizenship and to deny that carbon, you know, is responsible for climate change is ridiculous. I mean, I don't know how I don't know how this administration can make those statements. And yet those are the statements they are making now. They're going to knock off COP 21 and the and the whole climate change initiative. I mean, if you want to start denying scientific evidence and saying we don't we can we can run our policies without any evidence basis, you're going to end up with a very strange world. Yeah. Well, we don't lose lose ground. We all losing ground. And the Russian thing with the APIS core, you know, somehow accentuates that. It means that somebody else can do things that are more creative. You know, we used to think that all the most creative people in the world are in the US best country in the world for, you know, clear thinking, well, not anymore. They take those multiple disciplinary, you know, values and put them together anywhere. And we all everybody in the world knows about these and they can make the same things that we could have made had we been more innovative. So innovation is not unique to the United States anymore. The Russians can do it. Everyone can do it. And indeed, as as if we try to sort of limit the input of our of our potential graduate students postdocs and young creative types to the business world, all we're doing is sort of cutting our own throat basically as a country. So there's a couple of things working here. You know, one that go to that first is, okay, we're not going to let anybody in anymore. We're going to throw them out, too. And if they got anything, you know, dark piece on their record, let's throw them out. And then in the process, we scare a lot of people out to scare them out and we scare them from coming in. Right. Result is in the process, we lose some of the best and brightest people. You know, I've told this story before about how back in the radio days, Think Tech was honored to have a delegation from Microsoft come down. There's some of their best and brightest programmers that came down to consult on network issues in Hawaii. And, you know, there they were. One of them was, you know, recent arrival from Africa. One of them was a recent arrival from the Middle East. One of them was a recent arrival from China. And that's the kind of, you know, technology people that Microsoft was finding. And they have a problem finding that level of technology here in the United States, that people would really rather study basket weaving or something. So, you know, the result is that if we had an edge, I think that edge is getting polished off pretty well. And, you know, you can be very innovative in China and they are. And now apparently you can also be very innovative in Russia. So, you know, and then on top of all that, we send them away. Send them away. We don't want you. Result is we lose some of the best and brightest people we could ever find globally. And instead of attracting them, we send them away. This has got to have a long-term effect. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It's going to reshape our culture. And it gets to be sort of a self-feeding, you know, vicious cycle kind of thing if you sort of stop the creative people, stop the bright people from contributing. Your whole culture has less and less appreciation for the bright and the creative people and thinks more proactively, more insolently and, you know, spiral down the tubes really quickly. Yeah. And then you add to that this whole notion of manufacturing on demand. You know, I think it'll happen in the U.S. to some extent, but it can happen elsewhere too. It is happening in Russia. You don't see houses being done in any, I mean, maybe we have some of this, but we don't, we're not doing it. We're not doing a house a day anywhere in this country. And so, we're being eclipsed again in this area. Right. And given right here in Hawaii, the tremendous issues and the focus on homelessness, why don't we have one of those systems, one of those systems sitting here, cranking out a house a day, it would not take long before essentially we wouldn't have much of a homeless problem anymore. We wouldn't. And we wouldn't pay that much for it, you know. Yeah. And not only could they stay there in a temporary basis, they could stay there in a permanent basis. It would be just fine. Right. And we could have communities that look good, feel good, you know, that are easy to live in, comfortable. You know, it's not a silver bullet. It's not a panacea, but, you know, it's a potential nice step in the right direction, you know. Well, I mean, what it tells me is that we better watch out. We better watch out that this whole idea of manufacturing on demand will be the norm globally soon. Right. And we've got to get on board with that. We can't talk about creating cheap jobs in the coal mines. Right. I was going to say just an example I was going to use it. It's not bringing back coal mining jobs that those aren't going to exist. And any coal miner job is going to be like the guy sitting there operating that crane, that crane. It's going to be somebody sitting there in a nice clean office running a computer that's crawling around on the ground extracting the minerals, you know. Right. We can't go backward. Right. We have to go forward. Right. And the other element is, you know, permitting. And on this one, you know, maybe the administration will have a positive effect. We spend too much time and have too much delay on permitting. There are too many bureaucrats sitting on permitting. You know, 10 guys are sitting on permitting. It only takes one guy to push the button and actually build a building. What's wrong with this picture? Right. Absolutely. We don't want to encumber anything by unnecessary bureaucracy at the same time. It's absolutely critical that we have protections in place that you don't see people building, buildings as happens in China where they skip and don't bother putting any rebar in a 30 story apartment building. Right. And guess what? That building goes quap and falls down. But you know what? You called it a printery before the show. A manufacturing facility otherwise known as a factory becomes a printery. It's on demand and it's on location. With the printery and the software, all the bureaucrat needs to do is look at the software and say, hmm, oh, this is how we're going to do it and check the materials. Oh, this is what we're going to use for it. The rest of it is cookie cutter. So if I build 365 homes in a year with this technology, how many permits do I need to get? Maybe one, right? So that all of a sudden the bureaucrats don't have much to do because it's all pre-approved essentially. That's what we ought to do. That's how we can solve the housing crisis. Right. Yeah. But you don't want to let people run a foul of needed regulations that protect the health and well-being of the masses. Oh, we need that. We need that. We have to direct them in the right place. So I mean, it seems like we're in a kind of quandary about what do we regulate? How do we regulate it? We've grown topsy on regulation, especially including Hawaii. I was amused and a little frustrated when I came to move here and found that we had to get permits from the Plant Quarantine Group to bring our parrots in. But these are birds. They're not plants, but nonetheless, we had to get our approval from Plant Quarantine People because I think they'd argue with the animal quarantine people. Home builders take, they got to get permits for developing large tracts of homes. It takes forever. And I don't understand why that is when everybody wants the homes. We need the homes. It's obvious. And yet there are concerns and political considerations that slow it down for years. So we have to find systems, ways of sort of meeting the technology at the intersection so everybody recognizes the need to get on with it and not get bogged down in bureaucracy and use the technology to do it quickly. Absolutely. It's interesting. Sometimes I remember in some of these energy projects, it takes years to get the project approved and like no time at all to build it. What's wrong with that picture? So anyway, I mean the thing is that this opens new doors for us and I think it should make us more sensitive to the fact that other people are coming along with great technology, great innovation, great ideas, and we have to use that and find a way to, you know, a clear path for it. Absolutely. And use it to its maximum extent. Think very creatively about it. How can we use it in aquaculture for instance? Right. Possibilities are enormous. You want a table. In fact, you could build electronics with this kind of print. And it'll be consumer. But really, we have to make it and replace the factory. And we don't want anybody to say no to that. We don't want anybody to say no. We want to build cameras. We want to build lights. We want to build all these things we can build on demand. You save so much money and time. You have a better economy as a result. Absolutely. Well, let's visit it again. There'll be more coming down the pike. Six months from now it'll be a new field, right? We have to take stock of everything that happens here. This is a sea change. We're riding a boat right on the sea change.