Fab labs, deep adaption through self-determination, self-sufficiency and technology?

We have been talking about fab labs for quite a while. I remember reading “Makers” by Chris Anderson. . The future of 3D, the disruption of distribution, the digitisation of the value chain and maybe even 4D. That was ten years ago. And 3D printing has been a lot slower than I expected.

Designing reality

Somewhere, I picked up “Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution”. A book about fab labs. Written in 2017. The promise of 3d, open source, and why they call the third digital revolution. The third digital revolution completes the first two revolutions by bringing the programmability of the virtual world of bits into the physical world of atoms. The conclusion of the third digital revolution is that the long-sought killer app for the future of computation is fabrication. Fab labs.

Making

Fab labs are laboratories for fabrication. Fab labs can turn data into things and things into data. Fab labs make tons of sense. It brings production and making to its most local form. On-demand. Super sustainable. Imagine a fab lab in your local village. Where you can print whatever you need, including food. Imagine a network of these fab labs. All connected, all learning, all sharing.