Backlight: Making the Future

Decreasing costs of materials and tools, and the availability of all kinds of information mean everyone can become a maker, developer or entrepreneur. Is this mass-production in reverse and the start of a new industrial revolution?

Rapid technological developments have not only made knowledge available to everyone, but the tools to invent and produce are now at our fingertips too. A new generation of inventors and makers have taken matters into their own hands and are innovating and producing in attics, sheds and small local laboratories. Will it lead to a democratisation of innovation and fabrication or should we fear what the new makers are up to in their own high-tech laboratories? And what does it mean for our economy?