The Global Village Construction Set is Open Source designs for the 50 industrial machines needed to make a civilization. They have eight completed so far:
While some of these machines are agricultural - Tractor, Hay Cutter, Bailer - others are industrial: Aluminum Extractor (from clay), Dimensional Sawmill, Metal Roller Mill. I'm not sure that this is an exhaustive list of machinery you'd need for civilization (chemical processing and pharmaceuticals are notable in their absence), this seems a damned fine start.
Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters building the Global Village Construction Set - a modular, DIY, low-cost, open source, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different industrial machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.
The aim of the GVCS is to lower the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing. Its a life-size lego set that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, or in the developing world.
Best of all, the machines are designed to meet industry specs while being inexpensive and locally built and maintained.
LifeTrac All Terrain Tracks - Fab and Assembly from Open Source Ecology on Vimeo.
If you believe that the problem facing the world today is too much centralization and not enough local autonomy and control, this is revolutionary. And I mean "revolutionary" in a Jeffersonian sense. Gunsmithing seems a natural addition.
Wow.
Via Al Fin, so you know that it's wicked smart and entirely cool.
2 comments:
How do I get the DIY Gunsmithing set? Actually, this is awesome. And I want one.
WV: dispin- what you see on CNN and FOX every day
I think his heart is in the right place, though I think the skills needed can't be put on a DVD. I see some machine tools there, but how useful could they be? I remain doubtful.
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