Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
fabrication is going to force us to reimagine some of our most basic assumptions
about material culture and not just because it is a new industrial tool. We will also
have to grapple with the social implications of it as a communications platform and
as a networked device with potential outputs that are much harder to ignore than
those of any previously networked system. The future we imagine for home fabrica-
tion depends largely on our own ideological commitments about the future: how
will people act when presented with a technology with so much capability for both
“good” and “evil”? To what extent can (or should) we anticipate and regulate
dangerous uses of this technology? How does this technology disrupt or reinforce
existing hierarchies and systems of authority? What type of playful new possibili-
ties exist when traditional barriers to small-scale fabrication are removed? These
questions don't have answers yet, but as home fabrication continues to grow in
capability and as the ethos of the Maker movement continues to spread, we can
draw on them to orient ourselves to the possibilities of this fast-approaching future.
Through the lens of fi ctional scenarios and stories, we can ground these abstract
ideas in concrete visions that make it easier to work out the implications and pos-
sibilities these technologies raise.
References
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