Shouninjutsu

Been thinking about my previous comments about the various of “waves” through which civilization has progressed.

And while I still believe it is absolutely true that we have in general “core dumped” ourselves beyond not only the “industrial wave” but the “information wave” as well (see previous Pareto Proclamation post), I’ve been recently reminded that each successive wave carries ripple effects that reverberate and “feedback” (riptide?) back into previous waves as well.

The proliferation of corporate farms, genetic hybrid crops and global commodity trading systems over the last 20-30 years have overhauled the agricultural landscape to the point of being virtually unrecognizable when compared to earlier food production methods. And in the last week I’ve become even more aware of another revolution that stands a very good chance of revolutionizing manufacturing processes in a way that could lead to an entirely new kind of “industrial wave.”

Without going into too much detail, a number of confluences are converging to create a “perfect storm” capable of changing the way we look at global manufacturing industries. Check out what’s happening at Tangible Express, an innovative company focusing on democratizing access to rapid prototyping technologies to create whole new market opportunities through a concept they call “fractional manufacturing.” What electronic typesetting and later, desktop publishing did for the printing/publishing industry, this new approach may well bring to manufacturing methodology and practice.

And given that the founder/Chairman of Tangible Express is David McInnis of PRWeb fame, you’d think he knows a thing or two about crushing existing paradigms by blowing open the opportunity for creative folks to “do it themselves.”<g>

Will Tangible Express (and the competitors who are sure to jump on the bandwagon soon) turn traditional production processes– not to mention potentially even global economic politics– on their heads? Time will tell, but at the very least it’s a reminder to me that no wave is ever truly “over,” and at the end of the day, the world is still filled with more “atoms” than “bits”…<g>