Atoms to bits

Tuned in as I am to A His­tory of the World in 100 Objects and the notion that humans make tools and tools remake humans, I couldn’t help but notice Chris Ander­son claim that every­one now has the power to make com­plex things. In the DIY cul­ture of the inter­net, man­u­fac­tur­ing will be rad­i­cally democ­ra­tized; in the next indus­trial rev­o­lu­tions, “atoms are the new bits.” What was once mass pro­duced will become mass per­son­al­ized. Think on the ways in which we man­age our daily lives, through our edu­ca­tion sys­tems, work prac­tices, com­mu­nity ser­vices and gov­er­nance, all of which are designed and coor­di­nated with tools we have had at our dis­posal. What will these tools look like in the DIY model when col­lab­o­ra­tion, crowd­sourc­ing and great ideas attract­ing like-minded indi­vid­u­als? The garage/basement exam­ples Chris Ander­son pro­vides remind us that the man­u­fac­tur­ing rev­o­lu­tion is very much con­fined to hob­by­ist and bou­tique mar­kets, not main­stream indus­try. But the whole notion of mov­ing from mass pro­duc­tion to mass per­son­al­iza­tion is rather intoxicating.