3D Printing: Are we moving into a design economy?

My latest futurismic column explores 3D printing.  I'm convinced this is a wild card technology.  That is, most people don't actually see it coming, or understand its potential to change our world.  Yet the current uses and capabilities are growing exponentially.  If "fabbing" (as some aficionados call it) grows as fast as PC capability grew, and the cost falls as far as fast, then in ten years a friend might send me the design for new earrings for my birthday and I can feed them to my fab machi