2.5D Printing

3The Present: Materials, Making, Capturing and Measuring

3.1 Introduction: Universal Knowledge

In 1755, Denis Diderot (1685–1759) predicted that people in the future would not spend their time reading but rather ‘devote themselves to investigation which will be new, or which they will believe to be new’. He further suggested that those unable to come up with their own ideas, ‘will be busy night and day leafing through these books, taking out of them the fragments they consider worthy of being collected and preserved’ (Yeo, 1996, p. 1).

The gathering, storing and retrieving of knowledge, as demonstrated by the Encyclopaedias of the eighteenth century, was crucial to gaining insights of practical knowledge, the skill of the craftsperson and furthering the knowledge of the philosopher. Over a century earlier, Francis Bacon (1561–1626) also reflected on the idea that knowledge needed to be practical and relate mankind to the world. The two‐volume Cyclopaedia by Ephram Chambers (1680–1740), An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, was published in England in 1728 (http://www.xn‐‐cyclopdia‐l3a.eu/) and was a first attempt in the eighteenth century to summarise arts and scientific advances. In 1750, Denis Diderot was employed to undertake an overhaul of the Chambers' Cyclopaedia and, along with contributions from over one hundred writers, including François‐Marie Arouet (better known as Voltaire, 1694–1778), Jean‐Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and mathematician Jean‐Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ...