The 20th century witnessed two digital revolutions. Computing power
has revolutionized every industry, from finance to agriculture to
pharmaceuticals. We've got computers at work and at home, in our
pockets and our bags, on our wrists, and even embedded in the
architecture of our houses. At the same time a revolution in
digital communication unfolded, which has forever altered our
lives-work, social, and private-by enabling a world in which we're
never impossible to reach and have nearly limitless power to
express ourselves. But no one saw the downsides of these: powerful
computers threaten to displace human labor from a range of jobs,
both blue and white collar, and, after an election in which the
Internet played such a pivotal role in spreading disinformation-not
to mention the simple problem of never being able to escape our
jobs if our email goes with us everywhere-the possible pitfalls of
free communication become clearer. And now, as Neil Gershenfeld,
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, and Alan Gershenfeld make clear, we are
in the early years of the third digital revolution: from
computation and communication comes fabrication. Fabrication
includes everything from 3D printing to laser cutters to machines
that can assemble anything, including themselves, by precisely
controlling the placement of individual atoms. We will soon be able
to program matter the same way we can now program a computer. This
may sound outlandish, but just as the smartphone is the logical
conclusion of trends in computing that began in the 1960s, so is
this fabrication technology of the future the extension of today's
trends in manufacturing. Neil Gershenfeld, an MIT professor, is at
the forefront of making it a reality, through his scientific work
as well as his championing of Fab Labs, a sort of low-cost personal
factory. In Designing Reality, he and his brothers Alan and Joel
explore not just the promise but the perils of this revolution in
fabrication. On one extreme, it promises self-sufficient cities,
the end of work, and the ability for each of us to design and
create anything we can imagine. On the other, it could lead to the
concentration of wealth in very few hands. Neither guaranteeing
utopia nor insisting that our worst nightmares are about to come
true, the Gershenfelds are trying to anticipate the future and
teach us how best to prepare for it, personally and as a society,
across education, employment and more. The first two digital
revolutions caught us flat-footed, and there has been a heavy price
to pay. Let us prepare for the future, not simply react to it.
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