Re: <nettime> Means of production: The factory-floor knowledge economy (le monde diplo)

[Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@yahoo.com>]

"Desktop publishing", now 20+ years old, had the same false premise.
Ability to typeset and print at home did not change publishing world
much. The same big publishers are making the same money today, and
choose what they want to print in pretty much the same way.

What changed is that you don't have to go to the post office to get
tax forms - you can print them yourself.

Self-printing objects may somewhat shift the consumer supply chain, in
some cases, from fully finished objects to raw material + design, but
the value will not shift any direction but down - take photographic
prints as example. What you used to have done in one-weeek, then
one-hour photo shops, today you can print, but you don't, because it
lives as bits on the disk and the wire, and pixels on the screen. Are
you empowered because of that? No, you are not, and the actual value
of photographic skills went down the drain.

Once billions of 'tards can print objects at home, the value will go
down the drain. You may bury yourself in coffee mugs, gun receivers,
dildos, jewelry - it will all be worthless, as photo prints are today.

> but the economical reasons felt behind.
>
> Leaving beside the question of the universality of the
> "universal fubber" and whether a DIY-die casting can become a
> new biz model for masses (artists, makers, hobbyists, pseudo
> self-employed/make-believe entrepreneurs) meating at media art or
> techno fairs and festivals







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