Have we come far, or gone too far?
this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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Technology
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This took Europe $200B and 40 years.
Secret facility in France.
What part do they make in that round thing?
Y'see the 3 sided zipper can only exist in cosmic levels of pressure and heat, being constrained by advanced AI controlled magnets to prevent the zipper from getting caught on something.
A moment of horrified silence for the scrotums/labia of the 18 scientists that collectively discovered this. Their sacrifices will not be forgotten.
Oops, the AI controlling the magnets just deleted the database with the records, but it says it is very sorry.
Finally the time has come. Your primitive species has advanced to the point where we can now make ourselves known and offer you an opportunity to join galactic society.
That's only when you have 4D zippers. Almost there...
Yes... Finally... The wait is over.
I feel I'd have to see it in action, on a use case, to understand its use.
There's a video in the article showing a few, like pitching a tent and then taking it down.
Immediately when i saw this is thought man this will revolutionise the tent game.
Then i saw the video and am glad they're all over it
That tent actually looks useful, if the zippers can hold up.
The video shows a robot with variable leg lengths where the excess is stored in a round drum.
Mickey Mouse eared robot legs is not something I thought I would see when the title of the post is: three-sided zippers.
Look, I don't care how many sides it has as long as it doesn't get stuck on everything.
At a glance, I thought they arranged the zippers to say "smile," but no, it's just random patterns.
It's everything I never needed.
I'm sure people have said similar things about inventions in the past that now shape our everyday lives.
to create items with "tunable stiffness."
I've got an item with tunable stiffness for ya.
That makes one is us!
Hey, that's pretty cool! I'd be super curious to see how other materials outside of pla (not particularly great for long term outdoor use) or tpu fare, especially with tools like metal printers becoming slightly more accessible.
Also, it might be worth cross posting to !3dprinting@lemmy.world, it's always nice to see cool and bleeding edge use cases for the technology.
John Zip would be proud that his two dimensional coupler gained an extra dimension of utility today.
I'm not cinical, but this is likely the 4th or 5th time someone has made a 3 sided zipper in my lifetime.
Article sort of goes into that a little bit, mentioning the origins of the idea and explaining how this one might actually be useful.
Very cool, thanks.
Thumbnail looks like IUDs
3d printable IUD! Who's first?
Eh I already got enough plastic in my balls
I'm getting Faces of Death vibes from that music in the video (at least in the tent scene).
This is fascinating. Sure wish they released the design tool so we could play with it.
Super cool
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