Glenn Beck has seen the future, and it is 3-D printed.

On Tuesday, the conservative conspiracy theorist featured one of MakerBot's Replicators on his radio show/online broadcast, making it clear that he was impressed by the desktop device.

"This can make anything," he says as the machine diligently prints out a tiny shark model. He's no less impressed by how easy it is to create the models for a print, too, pointing to Autodesk's 123D Catch as an exemplar. "Now I can take a picture of anything and it will make it."

While this isn't — strictly speaking — true (Beck would do well to remember Steve Jobs' famous dictum that design is how it works, not what it looks like), it's not that different from what we hear from the most enthusiastic advocates for 3-D printing.

In the segment, Beck is quick to highlight the societal implications, worrying about what it could mean for patents, art and currency. But his main focus is on the means to use this kind of technology to restore American exceptionalism.

"Jobs will come back to America because you'll be able to make things again, remember this is early technology here," he says. "However, those aren't manufacturing jobs, they aren't labor union jobs, they aren't dolt jobs, per se. You will be able to make anything you need. So our economy in the entire world is turned upside down. You don't need little slave children in China to make stuff. The Replicator 2000 will do it for you."

Redesigning the World

Beck has always been something of a futurist in his own bizarre way. At the peak of his popularity at Fox News, his outlook was exceedingly dim. He warned of a coming insurrection, and a country that would fall into ruin. Accordingly, he encouraged his viewers should stock up on gold and disaster survivalist kits. As recently as the 2012 election, he was ready to suggest that call for the destruction of America in the face of an Obama win.

Today, Beck strikes a much more hopeful tone. On Monday, standing between his iconic chalkboard and an iPad, he launched the American Dream Labs, a series of initiatives to secure the future of the country. "I am not going to let somebody else redesign the world without me involved and without you involved because I don't like the global planners. Here, we're going to push the envelope and look for new creative innovative things in more than one area. I will show you how we can master technology," he tells viewers.

"Here in Dallas we're working on energy and food, but we're also working on digital features that are going to blow your mind," Beck says. He also promises revolutions in education and entertainment, if only he can find the right partners.

"This week we want to put you on notice that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Somebody is doing something, somebody is dreaming big, somebody is actually doing something big. Hank Rearden is about to pour some steel. It will fundamentally transform us back into the people that deserve the citizenship of the United States of America."