In Part 2 of our three-part series on the new economy, Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon welcome New York Times bestselling author and Forbes.com Web Celeb Cory Doctorow to FastForward Radio to discuss his novel Makers.
Set in a highly plausible near future, Makers is the story of the next great economic boom and bust cycle — empowered by 3D printers, useful refuse, and the unstoppable hacker urge to get out there and make something cool. Along the way we meet inventors, bloggers, Big Money Men, sexy political activists, house-proud squatters, evil Disney execs, and a goth kid with a heart of gold. New industries rise and fall. Obesity is cured. The world changes radically, and yet stays very much the same.
Is this our future? How will the ongoing (and closely related) trends of increased productivity and increased individual control of production impact our economy? Are we heading for a world in which, as we discussed in Part 1, robots take all our jobs away? If so, how much of that damage will be offset by technology that let’s us “print” the stuff we need — including housing?
What does the future hold in store for us — the consumer welfare state? The luxury shanty town? Or something else altogether? Tune in and find out.