Reaching Post-Scarcity Escape Velocity:

Building the World's First, Open Source, Replicable, Resilient Community

Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D. Open Source Ecology 10.19.2010 Presented at Open Up Seattle, Washington USA

Marcin Jakubowski, Ph.D. - Open Source Ecology 10.19.10 - http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/

Introduction

What if we took all that civilization has learned to date and applied it to an experiment for making a better world? Miniaturization of Civilization: a unique opportunity for postscarcity living, resilient communities, autonomy on a small scale Technology makes living from local resources possible and indeed makes it trivial to do so

Let's get the world right

Basic Necessities are Covered by Abundant Resources

There are 6 ways to die: too cold, too hot, thirst, hunger, illness, injury Food, energy, housing, etc., come from the earth and sun Conversion occurs via information and tools

Energy Abundance Means Material Prosperity

Ubiquitous clay smelt aluminum Also known as advanced civilization Ubiquitous sand refine silicon Also known as the digital age

Technology is Advanced and Its Development is Accelerating

Star Trek Replicator is here Example: 3D Printing Download from afar Print locally Mini-China on your desktop

Resilient Community Construction Set (RCCS)

Small subset of tools sufficient for building advanced civilization Includes cars, tractors, machinery, power generation, adaptable digital fab Self-replicating: agroecology and technology

LifeTrac Prototype II

Soil Pulverizer Prototype II

150 Ton Hole Puncher Prototype I

The Liberator Full Product Release

Proposed Workshop Uses Modular CEB Construction

Proposed Living Units Use Modular CEB Construction

Open Business Models Work

RepRap factor of 30 cost reduction The Liberator CEB Press 10-20 times

$2500 in materials

Producer captures value of information and labor Economics of post-scarcity?

Post-Scarcity Means Replacing Scarce Resources with Ubiquitous Resources

Real goods for meeting real needs Ex. Advanced construction from soil below the building site

We Are Interested in Building Resilient Communities

Replicable Viral Village Resource-based economy

Population explosion is unlikely due to direct resource feedback

Resource Based Economy (RBE) Means Using Available Resources Directly

RBE rocesses natural resources with unleashed information and technology Real economy not funnymoney Requirement competitiveness with mainstream production

Post-Scarcity Lifestyle Requires no Compromise on Quality of Life

Unleashed info/tech anyone can produce anything anywhere no doomsday scenarios Neosubsistence option producing for your needs or trading in outside markets Rapid learning and technology generalist skill Lifetime design equipment is required your tools of sustenance can't be built to break down Industry 2.0 with global design and local fab Autonomy for you and me

RepLab is the Open Source Fab Lab and a Universal Constructor

Make just about anything on a small scale

General Systems Theory Leads to Integrated Humans

Do people want to become integrated humans? Can we reconnect to ourselves, others, nature? Transformation of nature to meet needs is a deep form of reconnection

Join Us in This Development

Become a developer of this work, in a research and development lifestyle

No more mindless teeth on one of the many gears of the soul-crunching machine

It Costs a Million to Live

Business-as-Usual (BAU): Most human energy is spent on covering costs of living Myth of technology: ever-advanced technology = ever-less free time $12.8k per year: housing-food-cars $21k per year: including all else

It Costs $20k to Start up a Resilient Community with the GVCS

GVCS is a Basic Set of Building Blocks

Business-as-Usual Cost is Much Greater

Maintenance costs remain a big challenge

$892k Startup Cost Can be Eliminated with Access to the GVCS

Assumption: skilled people are a prerequisite Start with immersion training for participants

Generalist post-secondary training

Open Source Agroecology Digital Fabrication Applied science, engineering, economics, and law

Free based on available documentation Immersion training at OSE facilities

2 year program Equivalent of college education except for practical skills

Each Cost May Be Displaced with the GVCS

Can the cost go to zero?

The Last Frontier is Completion of RepLab (GVCS III)

GVCS has 3 levels:

GVCS I Gross machines; Workshop I + CNC: Torch Table, Mill, Lathe GVCS II Components; Induction Furnace + advanced CNC GVCS III Materials; all of above + open sourced industrial system 2000 sq ft silicate foundry

GVCS III:

10-100 tons of metals produced per day from rocks Digital age created on your tabletop Rubber from dandelion resin Glass, ceramics Polymers, chemicals

Desktop semiconductor foundry

Other materials

Prosperity Qeustion Boils Down to Access to Energy

Baseline: 1000W/sq meter comes from the sun Average per capita use in the USA is 400W-electric Reality: FeF grass yield is 4000 lb of dry biomass per acre per year, or equivalent of 500 gallons of fuel

If burned with 16% efficiency, one acre suffices to meet present electricity needs for one person Yes, if you could limit your travels from SF to NYC to only 8 times per year in a 50 mpg car (24,000 miles).

Is this enough for car transportation?

Add solar turbine 2.5% continuous efficiency of conversion from solar to electric energy, counting nights and bad weather

16 square meters are then required to produce all your energy

Advanced material civilization can be produced on the local scale using local energy

Our Goal is to Bootstrap to a World Class Research and Development Center for OSE

Robust production workshop for 4 fabricators can yield $16-80k per month

$1k-$5k/person/week earning opportunity building essential tools

Quit your job and join us if you have the clarity and passion

We Are Planning Modular CEB Construction

CEB construction infrastructure for Dedicated Project Visits

Summary

We have demonstrated beginnings of:

Replicable toolset for post-scarcity, resilient communities Open source enterprise model of production Replication cost reduction to zero

We're looking for co-developers

Recruiting on-site team for 2011: Farmer Scientist 4 Digital Fabricators 2 Organizers/Developers/Documentors Earnings via production: the revolution shall be funded

Support This Important Work

Become a True Fan at $10/month for 2 years Go into the deep end and join us on-site Autonomy, full freedom, no compromise Stary a new system, as this one is broken Evolve to freedom

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