This is Tech

With the US economy struggling, the news has been especially grim lately. To help balance out this gloomy outlook, a number of MIT faculty and researches comment on emerging technology trends they find hold promise for improving the economy and society in general:

Digital Fabrication

Neil Gershenfeld

Director, Center for Bits and Atoms

The most significant coming technology is the digitization of fabrication, the impact of which will be analogous to the digitization of communication and computation. Like those earlier revolutions, the consequence will be personalization, in this case, allowing anyone to make almost anything, anywhere. Coupled with digital video and digital libraries, this means that the formerly scarce resources (facilities, books, people) of advanced technical institutions (such as MIT) can become much more widely accessible.

(Via EconLog)