Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication

I think some of the reviewers here were expecting a how to book and are missing the point. This book is more of a sumation of some of the possibilities that microfabrication can bring to the world. This was a very good read and is inspiring to those with imagination. Well, if you don't have imagination, you probably aren't going to do too well when microfabrication tech truely becomes much more mainstream in the next 10 years--and it is coming despite any unenlightened assertions to the contrary. The 3D printing technology is already being proven and people with brains realize how fast printing technology comes down in price.Also, I've seen a computer controlled wood milling machine on the market for under 2k now; metal milling won't be too far behind. A clever person could put such things to good use in a small business framework.If you have an imagination, this book will be a good read. If you don't, well, no technology can cure that lol.

Neil Gershenfeld rocks. its simple as that. the book has a strange kind of structure filled up with anecdotes of uses and impacts of the fabrication technology. it gives hope for a bright "future of the future" and should be standart literature in many different contexts. for living in germany, i hope that there will be some translations soon because "FAB" is written in a way even technophobes will be able to read and to understand the impact of fab-labs and hardware-culture, but these people are mostly of a generation that does not read english.for the younger generations (1970+) this book is one way or the other: a must-read

Frankly, one of the reasons that I bought this book was to use it as an assessment tool - to help me root out who the up and coming players would be in the general field of desktop manufacturing. You know the drill (pun intended): find the undisocvered player, take a sizeable position, add time, get rich.What I got I felt were a lot of examples about how fab students were able to get new technology to do new and interesting things, but if you're already a high tech version of a shade tree inventor this book leaves something to be desired. Good read, sure. But if you go sit under your own idea tree to come up with new things (starting with "what's the problem?") then the book may not give you enough beef. Questing for places online that are making the turn into desktop fab on a commercial scale to web-fab to desktop fab - such as [...] - are likely to result from more online searching. I'm still looking for the company that will make a stereolithography box and milling machine for the consumer market at a price point under $1,000.

The author is more concerned with the things that people around the world can do with 3D printers and similar technology than he is with how the technology works. From villages in India and Africa to American inner cities, to university campuses he shows how these devices are being put to uses, both technical ("printing" artificial organs) and idiosyncratic (printing a plastic bicycle).The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the possibilities of modern do-it-yourself fabrication technology and show where it might lead.

I had great expectations for this book. I had heard this book was about a new revolutionary idea, that we could all have the same level of production that big factories had, but we could have them in our garage. This sounded like a cool idea.Unfortunately this book doesn't do a great job of presenting the idea. The idea may be true, but this book wanders around from topic to topic. On page 56 the author says the book can be several things, advice for new business development, help for policy makers, and provide direction for technologists. This lack of focus dilutes the message of the book. Unfortunately the book only provides a few basic ideas and doesn't explore in depth the implications.There were a number of errors in recounting history. For example on page 82 the author implies that the British were still conducting slave trade at the turn of the 20th century. I also found it disturbing that the author felt it was reasonable that silk weavers destroyed the looms that were taking away their jobs. So if some new technology threatens ones livelihood, it is OK to break and burn. With this attitude we never would have adopted the plow.The central argument of the book seems a bit weak to me. As the power to produce becomes cheaper, I am sure there will be some changes in our society. But just because someone can have the power to produce a car in their garage doesn't mean very many people will produce their own car. The economics of personal production were not effectively address. We've had the personal production capabilities for building our own clothes for decades, but very few people use sewing machines to create their own clothes.On the plus side the book does read quickly. There are some interesting ideas. If the idea of personal fabrication sounds interesting, read the first 17 pages.

This book should be read by everyone who is involved in helping other countries. The book shows by giving the proper tools to people in poverty areas can produce items they need instead of giving funds to their ogvernments that only corrupts the government. Our nation was founded on self-help not government handouts but our aid programs only give money the government instead of the tools to the people.

Fantastic

１９８０年代以降、コンピュータが、メインフレームといった大型のものから、ワークステーション、そして、パーソナルなＰＣへと変貌を遂げ、個人に降りてきた。これはひとつの情報革命を先導した。そのキーワードはネットワークだった。いままた、ファブリケーションすら個人に降ろしてこようとしているのだ。過去において、産業革命は、家内制手工業から工場制機械工業への変革であった。ここには、大量生産・大量消費というひとつの文明のあり方を生み出した。ここにきて、今一度、「ものづくり(FAB)」を「個人」のもちもの、「個人の活動」に降ろそうというのだ。ここには、少量ロット生産、カスタマイズという現在の「ものづくり」の可能性をしめすものである。それはかれらは「革命」と呼んでいる。コンピュータの歴史に学ぶのであれば、そこに重要なものはネットワークだ。個人の集合知という考え方にある。こうしたテーゼの発進力に、今でも世界の中心たり続けようとしている、米国のもつ発展の鍵を感じる。