As the editor-in-chief of the do-it-yourself magazine Make, I've met scores of dedicated makers. They come from all walks of life -- rich, poor, young, old, male, female, religious, atheist, liberal, conservative. They're as varied as the things they make: kites with cameras, homebrew biodiesel, treehouses with ziplines, cigar box...

In engineering college, my physics professor shared C.P. Snow's shortcut for understanding the Three Laws of Thermodynamics. He likened the laws to the house rules in a cosmic gambling den:

1. You can't win. (You can't create or destroy energy in a closed system.)

2. You can't...