To the uninitiated, ‘selective laser sintering’ sounds like some kind of laser-based elimination game – one played out, perhaps, between the strong-jawed heroes of a new Star Wars film. However, the process – more commonly known as rapid manufacturing – is much less about space-age swordplay and more about a production technique that sees lasers put to use fusing powdered material to create real-life, three-dimensional products on demand. As a manufacturing process as well as for what it suggests for the future of design, its implications are many. Selective laser sintering, in short, sounds like the future.