【经济学人】第三次科技革命第一次工业革命伴随着纺织行业的发展兴起于18世纪的英国。
这次革命将数百个分散的手工作坊聚集到有几百人的供方里，工厂制诞生。
20世纪早期，亨利福特主导的大型流水线生产线开启了大规模生产的时代。
前两次工业革命让人们变得更加富裕以及城市化。
现在，第三次技术革命正在来临。
制造业变得更加智能。
本周特别报告显示：这可不仅仅是对商业的根本改变，它还有更多其它方面的变化。
THE first industrial revolution began in Britain in the late 18th century, with the mechanisation of the textile industry. Tasks previously done laboriously by hand in hundreds of weavers’ cottages were brought together in a single cotton mill, and the factory was born. The second industrial revolution came in the early 20th century, when Henry Ford mastered the moving assembly line and ushered in the age of mass production. The first two industrial revolutions made people richer and more urban. Now a third revolution is under way. Manufacturing is going digital. As this week’s special report argues, this could change not just business, but much else besides.第一次工业革命伴随着纺织行业的发展兴起于18世纪的英国。
这次革命将数百个分散的手工作坊聚集到有几百人的供方里，工厂制诞生。
20世纪早期，亨利福特主导的大型流水线生产线开启了大规模生产的时代。
前两次工业革命让人们变得更加富裕以及城市化。
现在，第三次技术革命正在来临。
制造业变得更加智能。
本周特别报告显示：这可不仅仅是对商业的根本改变，它还有更多其它方面的变化。
1A number of remarkable technologies are converging: clever software, novel materials, more dexterous robots, new processes (notably three-dimensional printing) and a whole range of web-based services. The factory of the past was based on cranking out zillions of identical products: Ford famously said that car-buyers could have any colour they liked, as long as it was black. But the cost of producing much smaller batches of a wider variety, with each product tailored precisely to eac h customer’s whims, is falling. The factory of the future will focus on mass customisation—and may look more like those weavers’ cottages than Ford’s assembly line.技术融合愈发明显：智能软件、新型材料、智能机器人、新型的工艺（比如三维印刷技术）全方位的网络服务。
过去的工厂化生产基于的是相同磨具，生产的产品都是同质化的：福特著名的名言就是：也许你喜欢颜色各异的T—型车，但是我们只生产黑色T型车。
但是成本高昂的大规模生产正趋于衰落。
跟灵巧的客户定制模式多元化生产正在兴起。
与福特的大规模流水线相比，未来的工厂将更像以往的手工作坊——更加注重客户需求。
Towards a third dimension立体发展：The old way of making things involved taking lots of parts and screwing or welding them together. Now a product can be designed on a computer and “printed” on a 3D printer, which creates a solid object by building up successive layers of material. The digital design can be tweaked with a few mouseclicks. The 3D printer can run unattended, and can make many things which are too complex for a traditional factory to handle. In time, these amazing machines may be able to make almost anything, anywhere—from your garage to an African village.旧有的生产方式是将大量的零配件用螺丝焊接在一起。
现在的由电脑设计的产品直接连接3D打印机，这将创建固有产品对象和材料提供层面紧密相联。
数字设计可以通过轻敲鼠标调整涉及，3D打印机能够自动运行，而且处理更多跟复杂的事情。
这些对于传统的工厂类型都是难以胜任的。
时间层面，这些不可思议的机器能在任何时间任何地点做出任何你想要的产品——无论你是在车库还是非洲村庄。
The applications of 3D printing are especially mind-boggling. Already, hearing aids and high-tech parts of military jets are being printed in customised shapes. The geography of supply chains will change. An engineer working in the middle of a desert who finds he lacks a certain tool no longer has to have it delivered from the nearest city. He can simply download the design and print it. The days when projects ground to a halt for want of a piece of kit, or when customers complained that they could no longer find spare parts for things they had bought, will one day seem quaint.3D打印技术的应用尤其令人惊喜。
现在，助听器以及军用飞机的高科技零件已经采取这种方式进行生产了。
传统的地域供应链将会改变。
在沙漠工作的工程师发现缺少某种工具的话，也不必在从附近的城市邮寄了。
他可以简单的下载设计图把他打印出来就可以了。
某天当一个项目由于某个部分停工，或者客户抱怨他们找不到合适的汽车零配件的时候，这样的日子或许看起来有点奇怪了。
Other changes are nearly as momentous. New materials are lighter, stronger and more durable than the old ones. Carbon fibre is replacing steel and aluminium in products ranging from aeroplanes to mountain bikes. New techniques let engineers shape objects at a tiny scale. Nanotechnology is giving products enhanced features, such as bandages that help heal cuts, engines that run more efficiently and crockery that cleans more easily. Genetically engineered viruses are being developed to make items such as batteries. And with the internet allowing ever more designers to collaborate on new products, the barriers to entry are falling. Ford needed heaps of capital to build his colossal River Rouge factory; his modern equivalent can start with little besides a laptop and a hunger to invent.其他方便的变化也很重要。
新型材料比旧有的材料更轻、硬度强更耐用。
碳纤维已经取代铁和铝被引用到从飞机制造到山地车的各个领域内。
新的技术能让工程师们在及其微笑的尺度内任意塑造物品。
纳米技术能让产品功能更强，比如能哦股帮助愈合伤口的绷带，陶瓷制造的引擎效率更高，更容易清理。
基因工程正在对病毒的结构进行研究，用以生产电池。
互联网的应用让新产品设计师们能够相互协调，打破进入壁垒。
福特公司帮助建立了大型的聚酯国内工厂，福特公司最新的汽车会装配灵巧的智能电脑和新奇的发明。