FAB

出版者:Basic Books

作者:Neil Gershenfeld

页数:288

出版时间:2005-4-12

价格:USD 26.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780465027453

具体描述

From Scientific American

Thirteen years ago I unboxed my new Apple Macintosh, plugged it into the phone line, and discovered the existence of another world. Spirited, unruly discussions on everything from quantum physics to punk rock ebbed and flowed across a borderless electronic forum called Usenet. Anyone anywhere could join in. More definitive sources of information--how to combat an infestation of pine-tip moths, join two boards with a dado joint or locate the great nebula in Orion--resided among a far-flung collection of computers called Gopher servers, a precursor to the World Wide Web. So much had been happening beyond my awareness. I felt like an African bushman turning on a radio for the first time. It wasn't just words and pictures that had been lurking out there. With the chirps and squawks of modem tones, I could download animated clocks, perpetual calendars, a gizmo that made my keyboard clack and ding like an old Smith Corona typewriter. Legions of amateur programmers were creating and distributing, largely for their own amusement, a multitude of virtual machines. I hadn't thought of it this way until I read Neil Gershenfeld's new book, Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication, but I was witnessing the revival of a spirit that had been fading since the Industrial Revolution: that of the artisan. While corporations like Microsoft and Oracle were employing droves of programmers to homogenize products for the mass market, these technological craftsmen were working on a personal scale. Crafting their code in home workshops, they enjoyed the same satisfaction that comes from building a bookshelf or caning a chair. Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology--the futuristic name is quintessential M.I.T.--believes that what is true now for virtual commodities will soon apply to physical ones. Give people personal computers and they can write their own software. Give them devices called personal fabricators and they can make their own things. What this will mark, he predicts, is a return to the days before "art became separated from artisans and mass manufacturing turned individuals from creators to consumers." Turning the pages, I could barely wait for the revolution to begin. With a smattering of Unix, I have been able to custom-tailor my own virtual machinery--an algorithm that checks in hourly with Amazon, recording the sales rank of my newest book; another that intercepts unwanted e-mail press releases, dispatching to persistent senders increasingly testier replies. But what about more solid stuff, like the knob that broke off the toaster? Or, even more annoying, all the extraneous, cryptically labeled buttons cluttering the TV remote control, when all I really want is On, Off, Channel, Volume and Mute? With mouse and keyboard, I could describe my needs to a personal replicator, hit enter, and wait for the product to emerge. If it wasn't quite right, I could tinker and try again. If someone else wanted to make one, I could post the code--the input for the fabricator--on my Web site or e-mail it to friends. The physical world, Gershenfeld promises, will become as malleable as the digital world, and we will no longer have to settle for the imperfect cobbling together of compromises available at the mall. It was a little disappointing to learn that for now personal fabricators are actually rooms full of expensive equipment called "fab labs." But be patient: a few decades ago a computer equivalent to a laptop weighed tons. In a class Gershenfeld teaches called "How to Make (Almost) Anything," laser cutters, water-jet cutters, numerically controlled milling machines--the kind of tools used in CAD-CAM (computer-aided design and manufacture)--give students the feeling of mastery that comes from taking an idea into the real world. Industrialists use this equipment to make prototypes, exact replicas of items they intend to manufacture. In the fab labs, as Gershenfeld puts it, the prototype is the product. Each is designed for a customer base of one. A student who had trouble getting up in the morning made her own fiendish alarm clock. Silencing it required touching a series of sensors in exactly the right order, a task certain to rouse her awake. A visitor to the lab, the actor Alan Alda, fabricated an accessory for his digital camera: a flash periscope that raises the bulb high enough that his subjects don't come out looking like red-eyed children of the damned. Even when a fab lab can be shrunk to the size of a suitcase, most people will probably content themselves with what is offered at Wal-Mart, just as they do with what's on TV. Where the revolution seems likelier to find traction is in the developing world. The best parts of Gershenfeld's book describe his adventures setting up experimental fab labs in places like Ghana and India, encouraging locals to try making tools that are unavailable or unaffordable: portable solar collectors that can turn shafts and wheels, inexpensive electronic gauges farmers can use to measure the quality of their crops, giving them an edge when they haggle with the brokers. All this may sound utopian, but it is hard not to be taken with Gershenfeld's enthusiasm. Today we have open-source software--all these free Unix and Linux programs streaming through the Net. Imagine a world with open-source hardware. Come up with a really great product, and you can share it with the world--to be hacked and modified by the people who actually use it, warrantied against obsolescence by the irrepressible nature of human ingenuity.

用户评价

这部作品的阅读体验，就像是在一个极其拥挤、光线昏暗的集市上试图抓住一个稍纵即逝的幻影。它的信息密度高得惊人，但信息的指向却极其模糊。我翻阅了好几遍关于某个核心事件的描述，发现每次的描述都略有不同，仿佛作者在玩弄“真相”这个概念，暗示它永远是流动的、主观的。这种对客观现实的解构非常彻底，以至于我作为一个读者，开始怀疑自己对刚刚读过的内容是否还拥有任何记忆的权力。这本书的篇幅不算短，但读完之后，我合上封面的那一刻，脑海中浮现的不是人物的形象，而是一种强烈的、难以言喻的焦虑感。它没有提供任何慰藉或解答，唯一的收获或许是认识到语言自身的局限性，以及我们对意义的过度依赖是多么可笑。

这本书简直是文字的迷宫，初读时我满心期待能找到某种清晰的脉络或明确的主旨，然而它更像是一系列零散的片段、闪烁的意象，不断地在读者的脑海中投下问号。作者似乎故意避开了传统叙事的框架，每一次当我以为要抓住故事的核心时，它又像水银泻地般从指缝间溜走。那些描写的场景，华丽却又荒诞，光怪陆离的人物在虚无的背景下进行着意义不明的对话。我反复咀嚼那些句子，试图从中挖掘出隐藏的密码，但最终感觉自己只是在一个巨大的、装饰精美的空房间里徘徊。这本书需要的不是一次阅读，而是一场精神上的朝圣，你必须接受它的晦涩和不确定性，才能勉强触碰到那些若隐若现的哲思。它成功地营造了一种令人不安的氛围，让你质疑自己对“故事”和“意义”的既有认知，但这种挑战性，对于寻求轻松阅读体验的读者来说，无疑是一种折磨。它更像是一件行为艺术品，而非一本供人消遣的小说，后劲十足，但过程异常艰涩，让人筋疲力尽。

读完之后，我的感觉是，我被作者用一种极其高超的技巧“戏弄”了。这本书的结构松散得令人发指，每一个章节都像是一个独立的小品，彼此之间只有一种松散的、近乎巧合的关联。我尝试着去构建人物关系网，去追踪时间线，结果发现所有的努力都是徒劳的。重点似乎完全不在于“发生了什么”，而在于“如何被描绘”。语言的运用达到了令人咋舌的程度，每一个词汇都被赋予了多重甚至矛盾的含义，句子长短不一，节奏忽快忽慢，读起来像是在听一首极其不和谐却又暗藏韵律的实验音乐。我必须承认，有些段落的美感是毋庸置疑的，那种对细节的捕捉和对情绪的渲染，精准得如同外科手术刀。但这种美感总是被突如其来的、完全不相干的插入语或视角转换打断，让人无法沉浸。这更像是作者在炫技，而非在讲述一个值得被铭记的故事，它考验的不是理解力，而是耐受力。

我必须承认，这是一部极具个人风格的作品，这种风格的强烈程度几乎到了令人窒息的地步。如果说一本书是作者的灵魂的投射，那么这本书的“灵魂”显然是躁动不安、充满矛盾且拒绝被轻易定义的那种。它对感官的调动是毋庸置疑的，气味、触感、声响，都在文字中被描绘得丝丝入扣，仿佛我可以真的走进那个场景。然而，一旦进入，你就会发现这个场景的物理法则与我们现实世界的法则完全不符。更令人困惑的是，作者似乎对角色的内心活动着墨极少，我们看到的是他们行为的怪异结果，却无法理解驱动这些行为的动机。这使得情感共鸣变得几乎不可能，我像是一个旁观的、被隔离在玻璃墙外的观察者，看着一出精彩却与我无关的默剧上演。看完之后，我更想做的不是推荐给别人，而是找个安静的地方，把自己的阅读笔记和书本放在一起，试图用逻辑去驯服那些狂野的想象，但最终明白，这可能根本就是徒劳。

这本书带给我一种强烈的“失语”体验。我感觉自己仿佛被抛入了一个完全陌生的文化熔炉，周围的一切都是熟悉的词语，但组合起来却成了我无法破译的方言。它探讨的主题——如果我能准确地指出那些主题的话——似乎围绕着现代性的疏离感和记忆的不可靠性打转，但所有这些深刻的思考都被包裹在一种近乎病态的、过度风格化的表达之下。阅读过程中，我不断地停下来，不是因为情节引人入胜，而是因为我需要时间来消化那些拗口的句式和那些似乎故意为之的语法错误。作者似乎在刻意疏远读者，建立一道高墙，阻止任何轻松的进入。这不像是一次邀请，更像是一场智力上的单方面挑战。我能感受到字里行间蕴含的能量和野心，但这种野心没有落地，它悬浮在半空，美丽但虚无，最终留给读者的，更多是阅读行为本身带来的疲惫感，而非故事带来的满足感。

it is about the coming age of personal fabrication on computers, well worth reading

it is about the coming age of personal fabrication on computers, well worth reading

it is about the coming age of personal fabrication on computers, well worth reading

it is about the coming age of personal fabrication on computers, well worth reading

it is about the coming age of personal fabrication on computers, well worth reading