Customer Reviews

FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book brings welcome attention to the neglected field of personal, general-purpose manufacturing. He argues that the technology is at roughly the stage that computing was when minicomputers were the leading edge, is good enough to tell us something about how full-fledged assemblers as envisioned by Drexler will be used, and that the main obstacle to people using it to build what they want is ignorance of what can be accomplished.
The book presents interesting examples of people building things that most would assume were beyond their ability. But he does not do a good job of explaining what can and can't be accomplished. Too much of the book sounds like a fund-raising appeal for a charity, describing a needy person who was helped rather than focusing on the technology or design process. He is rather thoughtless about choosing what technical details to provide, giving examples of assembly language (something widely known, and hard enough to use that most of his target users will be deterred from making designs which need it), but when he describes novel ideas such as "printing" a kit that can be assembled into a house he is too cryptic for me to guess whether that method would improve on standard methods.
I've tried thinking of things I might want to build, and I'm usually no closer to guessing whether it's feasible than before I read the book. For example, it would be nice if I could make a prototype of a seastead several feet in diameter, but none of the examples the book gives appear to involve methods which could make sturdy cylinders or hemispheres that large.
The index leaves much to be desired - minicomputers are indexed under computers, and open source is indexed under software, when I expected to find them under m and o.
And despite the lip service he pays to open source software, the CAM software he wrote comes with a vague license that doesn't meet the standard definition of open source.

In general the book was interesting, however it seemed unfocused. Often Gershenfeld seemed to be rambling from one point to another without a logical transition. Indeed, sometimes a whole section seemed to lack a discreet point, but instead was just a series of observations.

If you enjoy the topic the book will be interesting, but it lacks enough detail to be useable as a reference and the writing isn't quite focused enough to be IMHO a good read.

After the robot duplicating IEEE Spectrum review of 'FAB' I had to run out and pick up the book, but, as a 30yr Engineering Vet/MBA, I found it less than useful. The first 17 pages and the chapter on "The Future" was almost worth the price of the book because of its more advanced and stimulating content, however the middle 95% of the book is a rehash of decades old computer and manufacturing technology. While the book is a good introduction for kids and people new to computer technology... Explaining ASCII, 1s/0s, quoting: "RISC design...that doesn't mean they are dangerous...", an Engineer will glaze over (even with our propensity for "dry" work as noted by Gershenfeld in the text).

In reference to hydroelectric production in Ghana... "In 1996 about one gigawatt was produced for the whole country...". I would have hoped that author or some of the more clever MIT grad student proofreaders would have had the knowledge and/or diligence to differentiate between power and energy. GW-H maybe? (Myhrvold...did you open this book?)

I also feel Neil's disdain of "shady business" capitalism does his students and world citizens a disservice. Money is neutral, neither good or bad, proper management can do good things. Journalists only publish the evil that discourages. Basic business mgmt certainly isn't rocket science. I would call for the Academic Community to get involved in active competitive entrepreneurship...and be the beacon in the wilderness.

My disatisfaction was complete with the PC reference to how the advent of firearms was an "immoral" change on the battlefield...(as if murder by a closer sword was somehow moral). But the amusing part was where he later recounted a technology briefing with military/industrial complex Generals. One suggested that the fab technology should be controlled/export limited. The author was on the side that controls on his technology should not be instituted...as he agreed that the "bad guys would get their hands on it regardless of any attempted limits..." I somehow suspect that Neil is not a card carrying NRA member marching to preserve the 2nd Amendment and would still find a way to argue that a "fabbed" instrument of death is "moral" in comparison to my (locked up, but very capable) home defense Beretta. Nothing like holding two opposing thoughts in one mind.

After being teased then insulted...I am left just seeing the missed opportunity for something concrete that would move our country ahead...other than book profits.

Even though I can't afford to send my budding ME student to MIT, it is nice that we both can occasionally get to look at the OpenClassWare being sent overseas to our competitors for free. I know...I know...I am just unenlightend...sorry.

As noted by other reviews, the begining of the book is quite an eye opener. The examples are excellent, but the book lacks focus and deeper research into what is being done by parties to come up with a personal fab lab that as individuals we can, lets say, "print" our personalized whole shirts, coats, shoes and beyond and when. What I like most in the book is the idea of teaching students hands on. I hope educators and politicians take this seriously, since hands-on-see-the-result inspires kids to pursue science and technology. It is well worth the money and time to buy and read this book, althouhg it could be much better Maybe a second edition would do it.

I had great expectations for this book. I had heard this book was about a new revolutionary idea, that we could all have the same level of production that big factories had, but we could have them in our garage. This sounded like a cool idea.

Unfortunately this book doesn't do a great job of presenting the idea. The idea may be true, but this book wanders around from topic to topic. On page 56 the author says the book can be several things, advice for new business development, help for policy makers, and provide direction for technologists. This lack of focus dilutes the message of the book. Unfortunately the book only provides a few basic ideas and doesn't explore in depth the implications.

There were a number of errors in recounting history. For example on page 82 the author implies that the British were still conducting slave trade at the turn of the 20th century. I also found it disturbing that the author felt it was reasonable that silk weavers destroyed the looms that were taking away their jobs. So if some new technology threatens ones livelihood, it is OK to break and burn. With this attitude we never would have adopted the plow.

The central argument of the book seems a bit weak to me. As the power to produce becomes cheaper, I am sure there will be some changes in our society. But just because someone can have the power to produce a car in their garage doesn't mean very many people will produce their own car. The economics of personal production were not effectively address. We've had the personal production capabilities for building our own clothes for decades, but very few people use sewing machines to create their own clothes.

On the plus side the book does read quickly. There are some interesting ideas. If the idea of personal fabrication sounds interesting, read the first 17 pages.

I'm a librarian and I ordered this book for my library because the reviews made it sound interesting. When it arrived, I processed it, stuck it on the shelf with the other new books and then mostly forgot about it.

Recently I started doing a weekly radio program. I'm constantly searching for new topics and this week I did technology. Fab was a natural, so I finally read it.

I found the book inspiring, entertaining, and exciting. The only downer, for me, was that his historical analysis was pretty shallow, but then I've studied a lot of history, especially the history of technology.

His approach to getting the fab technology out in the field so that people without much access to the latest stuff can fabricate things they need felt right on to me.

Oh yes, and he does explain how to fabricate larger stuff, using what he calls a "turtle." Apparently you can program a device to crawl around and mark out on a surface the shape you need, which can then be cut out using the appropriate tools.

Deborah

I can agree in part with the other reviews saying that the book is unfocused and doesn't contain enough detail. Then again, if you're looking for a place to get you started in personal fabrication, this is an excellent beginning. His real life practicality and "hello world" applications are a great inspiration for anyone interested in the field.

As an introduction to the idea of personal fabrication this book works out quite well. The MIT FABLabs have been set up in a number of places around the world and this book tells us of the experiences that MIT students, et al, have undergone in setting them up and the things that they find people interested in making.

There is nothing in this book about other people's developments in personal fabrication (such as Fab@home or RepRap) but these may have occurred after the book was written.

All in all the book is a useful starting point introducing people to the perhaps novel idea of personal manufacturing, a growing field of endeavour.

The book, Fab, is just that, fabulous. The author, Neil Gershenfeld, an MIT professor, explains the principles of desktop fabucation in a clear, easy to undersand manner using many examples from all over the world. Truly a must read about the future of desktop computing.

Neil Gershenfeld rocks. its simple as that. the book has a strange kind of structure filled up with anecdotes of uses and impacts of the fabrication technology. it gives hope for a bright "future of the future" and should be standart literature in many different contexts. for living in germany, i hope that there will be some translations soon because "FAB" is written in a way even technophobes will be able to read and to understand the impact of fab-labs and hardware-culture, but these people are mostly of a generation that does not read english.
for the younger generations (1970+) this book is one way or the other: a must-read