I had an excellent read with ‘Makers’ by Cory Doctorow. Cory Doctorow hovers generally somewhere between science-fiction author and defender of free collaborative work over internet. His fiction books are never too far from what could happen in our societies.
In this semi-fiction book, Cory Doctorow imagines what will happen in the world when the capability of 3D-printing and of toying around with all the available electronics will allow decentralized goods production. This leads to severe battles between large companies that can be regarded as real institutions and a loose network of creators.
Of course as always Cory Doctorow tends to support the idea of networks of disinterested creators in the vein of open-source. Still this book explains very well what could happen in a few years’ time if the hardware movement continues its development up to the point of upending significant existing organizations.
Apart from its entertaining aspect I recommend this book to better understand the current transformations of the world. And amazingly this book was originally published in 2009!
I also strongly recommend “Little Brother” by Cory Doctorow, his best seller so far, about how the state could implement a deep surveillance bordering to a police state. Quite premonitory in view of the NSA scandals.
