The first industrial revolution began in the UK in the mid 18th century, but it had a profound effect on the social, cultural, and economic conditions of the rest of the world.

The industrial revolution was able to change living conditions so radically by using tools and technological innovations to increase human muscle power. Whether it was steam, electricity, or the automatic assembly line, these innovations had the effect of systemising and automating the work of physical labour.

More recently, technology has spurred a revolution of its own, with the internet in particular contributing the democratisation of information.  Many argue that this constitutes a revolution in itself – the information revolution – and is one of the factors underpinning the automation of certain areas of brain work and intellectual labour such as searching and finding, computing and sorting, assigning and assembling, and purchasing and forecasting.

Increasingly, many areas in the Western world have moved away from manufacturing and into a service-led economy – an economy primarily based on knowledge, involving the exchange of ‘services’ or ‘intangible goods’ such as attention, advice, experience, and discussion.

However, manufacturing has to take place somewhere, and many argue that for a country to remain economically vibrant it has to manufacture things, but until recently, every aspiring entrepreneur needed the support of a major manufacturer to get their ideas off the ground. Now, the increasing availability of 3D printing and electronics assembly means that anyone with a good idea and some expertise can turn their vision into a tangible reality. So just as the web democratised distribution - making it far easier for anyone to reach large numbers of people - these new technologies are moving production away from the keyboard and back into the hands of the makers.

In this talk, which marks the release of Makers: The new Industrial Revolution, author Chris Anderson discusses the rise of ‘makers’ – a new breed of entrepreneur using these new technologies to help reboot the manufacturing industry.

Chris Anderson is an award-winning author and editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine.

Related Links:
Chris Anderson: The Long Tail
Guardian article: The Internet has created a new industrial revolution 

A Festival of Ideas event in partnership with Watershed.

Posted on Tue 18 Sept 2012.

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