Cody Wilson is a 25-year-old law student and the designer of the first pistol that can be manufactured entirely with a 3D printer

摘要

In this moment of history, few things spark a mix of curiosity, fascination and fear like the convergence of firearms and 3D printers. Yet our interest in Cody Wilson is not focused on his wilfully sensationalist approach to design. Rather, we were seeking an up-close-and-personal encounter with something far more complex: Generation Y, technologically literate 25-year-olds belonging to groups such as Bitcoin and Anonymous, and all those crypto-anarchists who are creating a new digital subculture. In other words, our mission was to gain an understanding-through Cody in person-of some of the changes occurring in our society. We therefore decided that I would spend a week with him, to experience his life first-hand. I was with Cody when the federal government ordered him to remove the files from his website, and while he was trying to work out who had really issued the order. He was afraid. It made me think: who is afraid of whom?