Resources: History, Future, & the Maker Movement

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution – Steven Levy’s classic masterpiece about the history of computing and the geniuses who invented our digital world.
The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T. – Stewart Brand’s vision of what’s coming from the research scientists at the Media Lab.
The New Media Reader – by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort. An anthology of classic articles and program examples (via CD-ROM) of computing history.
The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit – Well before the internet was available in our pockets or the rise of social media, Sherry Turkle wrote about computers as part of our social and psychological lives.
Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution – Neil Gershenfeld and his two brothers forecast a world where fabrication technology looks like a universal replicator straight out of Star Trek. They disagree, however, on whether this will democratize fabrication, creating self-sufficient cities and the ability to make (almost) anything, or whether it will lead to massive inequality.

Made by Hand: Searching for Meaning in a Throwaway World – Make magazine editor-in-chief and Boing Boing co-founder Mark Frauenfelder’s personal journey into the world of making and DIY.
Free to Make: How the Maker Movement is Changing Our Schools, Our Jobs, and Our Minds – By Dale Dougherty, founder and CEO of Maker Media, MAKE: magazine, and the Maker Faire, provides a guided tour of the Maker Movement.
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution – This book about the maker revolution is by the former editor of Wired Magazine Chris Anderson.