Sterling's been harping on this for quite a while. And, like all predictions, I assume it will be partly wrong. However, it will be interesting to see what is correct.
I think the biggest thing after self-production will be cradle-to-cradle. We're starting to see great advances in the use of traditional materials: glass, metal, fabric. Traditional foresight predicted "magic" exotic materials, whereas we're starting to get such a handle on the existing materials that we have exotic implementations of old, boring things. Gorilla glass is a good example: plain glass, but with a couple of atoms replaced and moved around. We no longer have to tape a clock and a radio together to make a clock-radio.
Being able to use these materials everywhere means that it's easier to melt down your phone to fuel whatever looks good on github.
Sterling's been harping on this for quite a while. And, like all predictions, I assume it will be partly wrong. However, it will be interesting to see what is correct.
I think the biggest thing after self-production will be cradle-to-cradle. We're starting to see great advances in the use of traditional materials: glass, metal, fabric. Traditional foresight predicted "magic" exotic materials, whereas we're starting to get such a handle on the existing materials that we have exotic implementations of old, boring things. Gorilla glass is a good example: plain glass, but with a couple of atoms replaced and moved around. We no longer have to tape a clock and a radio together to make a clock-radio.
Being able to use these materials everywhere means that it's easier to melt down your phone to fuel whatever looks good on github.