It's a new take on the modern concept of remote control.
As_We_May_Think was a future projection of technology from a 1945 perspective. Notice the (unintentional) 3rd eye symbolism.
https://wikimedia.org/wikipedia/The_Memex An outlook_in_the_use_of_science and the advancement of technology over the next several decades and even centuries.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881
What would happen if most of civilizations could conjure up or 3D print and move things with the power of their mind?
http://worrydream.com/refs/Bush%20-%20As%20We%20May%20Think%20(Life%20Magazine%209-10-1945).pdf
http://sonify.psych.gatech.edu/~ben/references/bush_memex_revisited.pdf
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/2092806
https://www.historyofinformation.com/index.php?cat=38
A little over a decade after AS WE MAY THINK was published, the movie Forbidden_Planet was released. Although no direct reference to 3D printed matter technology is made, a subterranean machine and or supercomputer is able to manufacture monsters from the_Id & just about anything else. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet#Plot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_(American_TV_series) 2014 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2693776 , https://www.youtube.com/user/CBSINTELLIGENCE2013/videos