With the advent of 3D printers upon us. What do you think will be the impact of this technology on our everyday lives?

In their near future the impact will be minor for individual home use. The problem is that the per item cost to produce something off the shelf is significantly higher with a 3d printer versus its mass produced counterpart. The only time it pays off is when you want something that doesn't exist anywhere else, a custom item. Of course this requires a reasonably decent ability to create the model (ie, blueprint) to send to the printer. It requires a fairly high technical level. Materials cost will need to come way down before it will see widespread home use beyond garage tinkerers.

Where 3d printing will have the largest impact is for smaller to medium development business, such as you see on Kickstarter. For sort runs, 3d printing is actually cheaper since you don't need to create the plates, molds, ect. Required for mass production. This will allow smaller business to produce quantities of their products to match their smaller audience and demand without the huge upfront cost.

Where 3d printing is mostly lacking right now is types of materials. While recent developments have allowed some ceramics, glass, metals, and rubber, there are still thousands of materials that exist that can only be used with traditional methods of production. This is where 3d printing still has a long way to go before it can begin replacing mass production methods.