We're living through a third digital revolution, in fabrication. This one completes the digital revolutions in communications and computation by bringing the programmability of the digital world out into the physical world, with implications that are likely to be even greater because that's where we live.
Popular coverage of 3D printers and the maker movement is just the tip of a much deeper story, leading from today's room-filling fab labs up to Star Trek-style replicators that will be able to make almost anything, including themselves. At the heart of this is the digitization of not just how things are designed but also how they are constructed, a distinction as simple and profound as the distinction between an analog telephone call and the Internet.
The number of fab labs has been doubling for more than a decade. This is more data than Gordon Moore had when he made his projection that came to be called Moore's Law and has held for fifty years of doubling the performance and reach of digital computing and communications. That's created great wealth and innovation, along with equally great inequality and social disruption. This time around we don't need to wait fifty years to address fundamental questions of fab access and literacy.
Digital fabrication allows consumers to become creators, challenging fundamental assumptions about the nature of work, money, education, and governance. It's leading to a movement of fab cities aiming to be globally connected for knowledge but self-sufficient locally, humanitarian relief based on shipping data rather than aid, and legislation to foster universal access to digital fabrication. Now, as these technologies are emerging, is the time to prepare for the next fifty years.
Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, has been called the intellectual father of the maker movement. He will be joined by his brothers Alan Gershenfeld, co-founder/president of E-Line Media and former studio head at Activision, and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, professor in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and past president of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. They have recently co-authored Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution, which will be available at the event.
SPEAKERS
Joel Cutcher-GershenfeldProfessor, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Alan GershenfeldCo-Founder and President, E-Line Media
Neil GershenfeldDirector, Center for Atoms and Bits, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
We're living through a third digital revolution, in fabrication. This one completes the digital revolutions in communications and computation by bringing the programmability of the digital world out into the physical world, with implications that are likely to be even greater because that's where we live.
Popular coverage of 3D printers and the maker movement is just the tip of a much deeper story, leading from today's room-filling fab labs up to Star Trek-style replicators that will be able to make almost anything, including themselves. At the heart of this is the digitization of not just how things are designed but also how they are constructed, a distinction as simple and profound as the distinction between an analog telephone call and the Internet.
The number of fab labs has been doubling for more than a decade. This is more data than Gordon Moore had when he made his projection that came to be called Moore's Law and has held for fifty years of doubling the performance and reach of digital computing and communications. That's created great wealth and innovation, along with equally great inequality and social disruption. This time around we don't need to wait fifty years to address fundamental questions of fab access and literacy.
Digital fabrication allows consumers to become creators, challenging fundamental assumptions about the nature of work, money, education, and governance. It's leading to a movement of fab cities aiming to be globally connected for knowledge but self-sufficient locally, humanitarian relief based on shipping data rather than aid, and legislation to foster universal access to digital fabrication. Now, as these technologies are emerging, is the time to prepare for the next fifty years.
Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, has been called the intellectual father of the maker movement. He will be joined by his brothers Alan Gershenfeld, co-founder/president of E-Line Media and former studio head at Activision, and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, professor in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and past president of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. They have recently co-authored Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution, which will be available at the event.
SPEAKERS
Joel Cutcher-GershenfeldProfessor, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Alan GershenfeldCo-Founder and President, E-Line Media
Neil GershenfeldDirector, Center for Atoms and Bits, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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