The Next Tech Revolution
July 20, 2007 | By Raymond T. Hightower
The digital revolution is done. We won! So says Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. Now it’s time to move on to the next big thing: Digital Fabrication.
Bits and Atoms
Information is stored as bits. Atoms come together to form our physical world – things we can see and touch. Gershenfeld and his team have created fabrication laboratories (Fab Labs), software-driven equipment that people can use to make physical objects. Bits re-arranging atoms to make things.
Equipment, Software, and Collaboration
Each Fab Lab is equipped with off-the shelf fabrication and electronic tools, bundled with open source manufacturing software to make everything run. Collaboration software enables users to share their files and experiences as they work, so that users teach themselves and each other rather than relying on a traditional classroom curriculum.
The Exciting Part
The most exiting part of any new endeavor is the stuff you would never predict. For example, Gershenfeld tells of a schoolgirl in Ghana who became obsessed with her local Fab Lab. Late into the night she worked, fabricating an electronic sensor. And she, at the age of eight, was successful!
What great ideas will spring from this young girl’s mind as she grows into adulthood? How will her community, country, and planet benefit from her creativity?