Comparing the Industrial Revolution to the Personal Manufacturing Industrial Revolution
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Table
Source: Factory@Home report, pp. 40 [1]
Industrial revolution | Personal manufacturing “evolution” | |
---|---|---|
Communications | Telegraph, telephone, improved commercial printing technologies | Internet, online shopping, online user communities, search and rank algorithms that enable users to find what they’re looking for in the chaos, online blueprints |
Power | Steam, coal, electricity | Powerful computing technologies bring formerly industrial-scale design and analytical capabilities to the masses |
Machine technology | Steam engines, coal burning machines, looms, automated agricultural technologies.
Factory-scale machines mass produced standardized objects very quickly |
Personal fabrication machines are ready for home use, outside the factory.
Cheaper and easier CAD software Hardware and electronic components get smaller and cheaper and more powerful |
Distribution infrastructure | Rail ways, improved roads, the postal system | The Internet becomes the distribution infrastructure.
Fabbers are local so no distribution or inventory is needed |
Consumers | Emerging consumer markets eagerly purchased lower-cost mass produced items | Today’s consumers want to be unique and express themselves with custom objects |
Labor | Unskilled labor could assemble objects on an assembly line | Unskilled consumers, like unskilled computer users, can design and operate their own manufacturing machinery |