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. 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.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger.

He is a co-editor of Boing

Boing. He also blogs at craphound.com. 

He is a contributor to Wired, Popular Science, Make, the New York

Times, as well as a number of other newspapers, magazines and websites.

Cory's bestselling novel Little Brother was nominated for the 2008 Hugo,

Nebula, Sunburst and Locus Awards.  His current novel is called Makers

and it's available in bookstores now.