Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) Neil Gershenfeld says the digital revolution was worth it, and the next one will be in manufacturing, when anyone with a PC will be enabled to build anything just by hitting a print icon. The personal fabricator, said Mr. Gershenfeld, is too close to ignore. A director of the MIT center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), which explores the junction between information theory and industrial design, has spent the last five years designing and building a nanobeam writer that can etch microscopic patterns on metal and a supersonic waterjet cutter that outputs 60,000 pounds of water pressure (sufficient to cut through almost any material). Students have invented many other objects, including a $10 computer. The CBA is affiliated with the MIT Media Lab, and CBA's Fab Labs manufacturing lab is good enough to make a lot of modern technology. To be bested before the work in the Fab Lab can morph into a personal home fabricator are challenges related to technology and finance. Technology is not unpredictable, and the outlook is positive for enablement within 20 years, but funding is much more iffy. Therefore, Mr. Gershenfeld seeks visionaries in venture capital and microfinance who see the potential. According to an encouraged Mr. Gershenfeld, theres an emerging community interested in personal workgroup fabrication, but until the money rolls in, CBA will continue to bootstrap the movement and address the never-ending stream of requests for assistance setting up Fab Labs.