The fabbing revolution

In the “Age of access”, Jeremy Rifkin assures us that in 2050 only 5 percent of the world’s adult population will be needed so as to maintain and operate the industrial world. In just a few short months we have seen the birth of fabbing: a method for producing objects domestically, which may quickly turn Rifkin’s prediction into reality.

It is a simple concept: it is a printer which, instead of printing something out on paper, is able to make three-dimensional objects out of plastic (and other materials such as paper, metal and clay), based on a design done on a computer.

Fabbing is also a series of online communities which, energized by the spirit of collaboration and collective improvement fueled by the open-source software revolution, has turned into a social movement that exchanges information over the Internet and builds small machines, developing, reprogramming, and improving them.

The innovative part is that the invention wasn’t born in a factory, but instead arose from a social movement that gave it life and pushes it forward.

Currently there are both domestic and industrial versions. The debate on the impact it will have on society has only just begun.