Posthuman Blues

New machines could turn homes into small factories

"Dr Bowyer is working on creating the 3D models needed for a rapid prototype machine to make a copy of itself. When this is complete, he will put these on a website so that all owners of an existing conventional machine can download them for free and begin making copies of his machine. The new copies can then be sold to other people, who can in turn copy the machine and sell on."

Kind of like the original Napster -- only with physical artifacts instead of downloaded files. I personally really like the idea of people making their own things instead of devoting endless hours to shopping. Couple Bowyer's hypothetical machine with computer fabrication technology and certain facets of the retail world just might find themselves in jeopardy in a not-too-distant Sterling-esque future.

(Thanks to Bill Dash for the lead.)

By the way, Blogger finally appears to be behaving itself after a period of massive constipation -- the worst performance I've experienced since I started using it in 2003.