I guess eight is a magic number for me because, a) eight-year-old get mentioned in the fab lab context a few time in the ITConversations presentation, and b) my daughter is eight.
Like Arthur, I'm not wholly in favor of computers in schools. I don't think teachers are very well prepared to present computers, and there is plenty for kids to learn in schools already. On the other hand, if kids are being exposed to computers, I think they should learn to program them, not use them as incomprehensible black boxes, and I think Python is the best way forward for that.
In my daughter's school I see both poor uses of computers, and innovative uses (the language learning lab in particular).
And of course, even if everyone had access to a fab lab, there are still things which you cannot make: a pony, a way to share your dreams with friends, etc. For those things there are better ways anyway. It's like artificial intelligence: Why spend thousands of man-years and millions of dollars to create artificial intelligence when it only takes two people nine months to make *real* intelligence?
All this is beside the point of the thought experiment, however.
I'd love to see what Nikola Tesla or Buckminster Fuller would do with a fab lab. And I suspect there are going to be a lot more creative inventors like that now that putting your ideas into physical form is more accessible. Likewise, the idea of sharing plans, howtos, and ideas over the internet is very powerful because there is a combinatorial explosion of knowledge. Creativity no longer has to be limited by either tools or lack of knowledge.
What are the best things we can imagine?
--Dethe
When all else fails, men turns to reason. --Abba Eban
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