When Things Start to Think

✍ Scribed by Neil Gershenfeld

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 238
• Edition: 1st
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is a book for people who want to know what the future is going to look like and for people who want to know how to create the future. Gershenfeld offers a glimpse at the brave new post-computerized world, where microchips work for us instead of against us. He argues that we waste the potential of the microchip when we confine it to a box on our desk: the real electronic revolution will come when computers have all but disappeared into the walls around us. Imagine a digital book that looks like a traditional book printed on paper and is pleasant to read in bed but has all the mutability of a screen display. How about a personal fabricator that can organize digitized atoms into anything you want, or a musical keyboard that can be woven into a denim jacket? Gershenfeld tells the story of his Things that Think group at MIT's Media Lab, the group of innovative scientists and researchers dedicated to integrating digital technology into the fabric of our lives.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
The Digital Evolution......Page 16
Bits and Books......Page 26
Digital Expression......Page 40
Wear Ware Where?......Page 58
The Personal Fabricator......Page 76
Smart Money......Page 90
Rights and Responsibilities......Page 108
Bad Words......Page 120
Bit Beliefs......Page 136
Seeing Through Windows......Page 150
The Nature of Computation......Page 164
The Business of Discovery......Page 182
Information and Education......Page 198
Things That Think......Page 212
Afterword......Page 228
Index......Page 230