The free content culture of the internet is democratising art and music, and is leading us to a digital playground where everyone can make some money out of their creations, right? Well, that’s not how it worked out in Sven Johnson’s Future Imperfect…
Continue reading The bludgeoning of Gepetto: how “free” culture killed creative careers
Sven Johnson returns with another dispatch from the world just around the corner. This month, he’s watching the new ambassadors of transhumanism – wheelchair-bound cyber-centenarians totally pwning the kids in pro video game leagues.
Sven Johnson worries about the pitfalls of the shiny new near-future… but not so you don’t have to. In this month’s Future Imperfect, he looks at what might go wrong when prosumer-grade fabrication technology incorporates biotech-powered materials recycling.
Continue reading Teenage mutant ninja microbes – white biotech, home fabbing and the end of plastics
Sven Johnson has just filed another report from the very near future. In this month’s Future Imperfect, he looks at the impact of a massive and deliberate leak of the medical data of ordinary Americans onto the internet.
Sven Johnson’s Future Imperfect returns with more news from our very near future. You’ve heard of fabbing or 3D printing, right? Won’t it be amazing when anyone and everyone can become a designer – a web-based brave new world of commerce?
Well, not necessarily. Sven looks at the disconnect between the old model of pre-corporate capitalism and the new model that a Fabrication-on-Demand industry will produce. In a nutshell: it’s the consumers who’ll run the greatest risks, without any of the safety nets provided by an up-to-date suite of intellectual property laws.
Continue reading Caveat emptor: news reports from the Age of Direct Digital Manufacturing