The first industrial revolution allowed one person to do many tasks. By using our intelligence, we no longer had to labor quite so hard to produce. Factories sprung up beside the rivers that powered their machines; workers flocked to the factory area, living in factory provided housing and expanding what became larger cities nearby. Humanity moved to where the machines were, and life was better. We lived longer, built the infrastructure we rely on today: social institutions (schools, hospitals), transportation and the utilities we depend on .
As we ended the 1990's, we found ourselves in the second industrial revolution, the "information age." Now everyone with a desktop or a laptop could be a publisher. Everyone had the same access to the same information. We published our newsletters, books, and created content on the Web to share with everyone. Although some countries controlled the information available to their populaces, mostly we all had access to the same wealth of information. The encyclopedia gave way to Wikipedia, an on line service that was more accurate and certainly much more current!
We are now using the "cloud", a digital "factory" that denies access to no one. Using that collaborative model, anyone anywhere with a laptop/desktop/iPad or mobile device is able to create a 3D image (a spare part, a new knee joint) and then "print" it to a 3-D printer. From there, it's a short step to final mould/manufacture process.