Fab
This is a great book. Available on Amazon.
I’m always fascinated with the implications of merging physical science with computer science. The author, Neil Gershenfeld, explores the idea that in the near future people will be empowered to design and actually create their own objects instead of purchasing items already manufactured. The thought that people will be able to build their own items to solve problems unique to their environment has astounding social implications. Gershenfeld explores this by describing how he set up test "fab labs" in remote Ghana and India, encouraging locals to design and build items that would otherwise be unaffordable or unobtainable to solve real world dilemmas; Things like solar collectors for power and instruments to measure crop quality. The basic premise is that the physical world might some day be as a malleable as computer code is today…
Here’s the slashdot thread on Fab.