April 26, 2006
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Computerworld (04/03/06) P. 34
Anthes, Gary
In a recent interview, Neil Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT's Fab Lab, discussed his view that the world is on the brink of a third digital revolution. Two distinct phases define the past: communications and computing, asserts Gershenfeld, adding that the third revolution will come in the form of fabrication, where technology begins to imitate the molecular processes of living organisms. Gershenfeld argues that computer science as a term for the discipline is limiting, as it remains wedded to traditional forms of computing, while ignoring the superiority of natural forces as agents of calculation, such as quantum computing. Gershenfeld describes the Internet 0 project, which enables anyone to create a Web server based on all the original principles of the Internet for $1. "It will let you do IP to everything, at essentially the cost of an RFID tag. It's the first step in breaking computation out of the boxes you see today and integrating it with the physical world," Gershenfeld said. Another project at the center is fungible computation, or raw computing power as a material that can be sprayed, poured, or unrolled in the desired quantity and location. Self-organizing displays and servers could accept piecemeal upgrades of processing power that would greatly increase the flexibility of today's devices. At the Fab Lab, student projects have included a Web browser for parrots and an alarm clock that the user must wrestle with to convince it that he is awake. Though largely overlooked by commercial enterprises, the Fab Lab projects are no more at the bleeding edge than was the PC when companies running mainframes still considered it a toy, notes Gershenfeld. "Conventional companies don't recognize the extent to which these aren't just toys but fundamentally threaten their business models."
For the complete article see http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/software/story/0,10801,110043,00.html
Posted by rab5 at 09:22 PM
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