From the title I'd expected an article making the argument that 3-D printing was unlike virtual reality, or an explanation of how it came to be unlike VR.

OK, now I see that there was an inline link http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27526/ to an article called "Why 3-D Printing Will Go the Way of Virtual Reality". This article's only mention of VR is the claim that "3-D printing, like VR before it, is one of those technologies that suggest a trend of long and steep adoption driven by rapid advances on the systems we have now." Which is not really about VR at all, only saying that VR is an example of a technology which was not adopted at the rate at which its promise would imply.

So reading between the lines, collectively these authors would seem to imply that 3-D printing, whatever its merits and limitations, as a technology must have almost nothing to do with virtual reality. Otherwise, these authors surely would have mentioned it.

Interesting how the term "virtual reality" predates the term "linkbait" by many years.