Fab, the visionary book of Neil Gershenfeld, describes the principles of Personal Fabrication. Among many other interesting thoughts, he points out that in the future people will be able to fabricate their own products.
There are many supporting examples: Printers used to be big expensive machines. Today, you have a printer at your desk which prints whatever you need. Computers used to be big expensive machines. Most authorized voices claimed that there was no interest for individuals to have a computer – less than 30 years ago. Today, who hasn’t got a computer? Manufacturing lines are big expensive machines. Today, wouldn’t you say that we will be able to build objects ourselves? That is Neil’s vision, which I think it is great.
Fab labs are set-up to implement the fab concept. Basically, they give tools to students to build their own products. Check out one of their outputs, the screambody:
As you can see, world 2.0 is at the next corner!
June 15, 2007 at 10:29 am
Once you have a machine that builds almost anything…. what if you can you set it up to build more of the same machines?
http://www.microsiervos.com/archivo/tecnologia/robots-autorreplicantes.html
June 21, 2007 at 11:30 am
Well, that’s what we – the humans – do, right?
July 5, 2007 at 12:45 am
Here is an example of personal fabrication, with a sweet base material, sugar:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/candyfab
November 7, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Personal Fabrication is getting real:
http://www.ponoko.com/