Neil Gershenfeld: The beckoning promise of personal fabrication

http://www.ted.com MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld talks about his Fab Lab -- a low-cost lab that lets people build things they need using digital and analog tools. It's a simple idea with powerful results.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes -- including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, politics and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at
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• Category

  Science & Technology

[jama463]

If it's a universal law, you should be able to prove it mathematically.

 So, prove mathematically that every single human being can not have what he or she wants.

[Kumkvatjezdrav Zelo]

W O W !

[gadgetwhore2]

The only danger is to the people trying to sell things you can make yourself. I really don't understand how you can confuse freedom with danger. What is the danger, specifically? not trying to be argumentative.

[IntheeyesofMorbo]

People like this remind me of Leonard of Quirm in Terry Pratchetts Discworld series lol. He was incredibly brilliant but had no idea the chaos his inventions could cause on the world so the benevolent dictator Havelok Vetinari had Leonard locked up in a secure lab lol (Im joking but the implications of this could be staggering in the long term in a good way but very painful while the technology revolution occurs)

[invrnrv]

I want a world where I can't have what I want. QED.

[Kendra Lesnick]

I'm not saying I don't want people to be able to provide for themselves... I'm just saying that creating the technology to manufacture 3D printing of components which can form the basis of self-replication would be dangerous to everybody.

[dilbertgeg]

His bio on the brief CNN video in the sidebar gives some clue why closed-minded dimwits won't understand his "communication skills".

Eight year old's doing what mega billion dollar corporations can't do?

Students fabbing their own inventions, including their own computers to do the fabbing? Looks like the only way to stop this is by trying to enforce patent rights to make it illegal for people to make stuff.

[hede bede]

i'm not a big fan of venus project but these kind of lectures tells me that maybe jacque fresco

[Kendra Lesnick]

That sounds like a disaster: Self replicating machines.  Sounds like a great way to turn the world to grey goo...