[Scpg] Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

Thu May 5 07:24:15 PDT 2011

http://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski.html

Speakers Marcin Jakubowski: Farmer and technologist

Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing a set of blueprints for 50 farming 
tools that can be built cheaply from scratch. Call it a "civilization 
starter kit."
Why you should listen to him:

Declaring that, "We can lead self-sustaining lives without 
sacrificing our standard of living," Marcin Jakubowski believes that 
only by opening the means of production can we achieve abundance for 
all. Though he has a Ph.D. in fusion physics, he became dissatisfied 
with its remoteness, and turned back to the earth as a farmer and 
social innovator.

He is the founder of Open Source Ecology 
http://opensourceecology.org/, which is creating the Global Village 
Construction Set - the blueprints for simple fabrication of 
everything needed to start a self-sustaining village. At Factor e 
Farm in rural Missouri, he's been successfully putting those ideas to 
the test.
"It's not reinventing the wheel; it's open-sourcing the wheel."
Julia Valentine, farmer, in The Atlantic

The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, 
low-cost, 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.

About this talk
Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin 
Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, 
allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. 
And that's only the first step in a project to write an instruction 
set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000).

Hi, my name is Marcin -- farmer, technologist. I was born in Poland, 
now in the U.S. I started a group called Open Source Ecology. We've 
identified the 50 most important machines that we think it takes for 
modern life to exist -- things from tractors, bread ovens, circuit 
makers. Then we set out to create an open source, DIY, do it yourself 
version that anyone can build and maintain at a fraction of the cost. 
We call this the Global Village Construction Set.
So let me tell you a story. So I finished my 20s with a Ph.D. in 
fusion energy, and I discovered I was useless. I had no practical 
skills. The world presented me with options, and I took them. I guess 
you can call it the consumer lifestyle. So I started a farm in 
Missouri and learned about the economics of farming. I bought a 
tractor -- then it broke. I paid to get it repaired -- then it broke 
again. Then pretty soon I was broke too.
I realized that the truly appropriate, low-cost tools that I needed 
to start a sustainable farm and settlement just didn't exist yet. I 
needed tools that were robust, modular, highly efficient and 
optimized, low-cost, made from local and recycled materials that 
would last a lifetime, not designed for obsolescence. I found that I 
would have to build them myself. So I did just that. And I tested 
them. And I found that industrial productivity can be achieved on a 
small scale.
So then I published the 3D designs, schematics, instructional videos 
and budgets on a wiki. Then contributors from all over the world 
began showing up, prototyping new machines during dedicated project 
visits. So far, we have prototyped eight of the 50 machines. And now 
the project is beginning to grow on its own.
We know that open source has succeeded with tools for managing 
knowledge and creativity. And the same is starting to happen with 
hardware too. We're focusing on hardware because it is hardware that 
can change people's lives in such tangible material ways. If we can 
lower the barriers to farming, building, manufacturing, then we can 
unleash just massive amounts of human potential.
That's not only in the developing world. Our tools are being made for 
the American farmer, builder, entrepreneur, maker. We've seen lots of 
excitement from these people, who can now start a construction 
business, parts manufacturing, organic CSA or just selling power back 
to the grid. Our goal is a repository of published designs so clear, 
so complete, that a single burned DVD is effectively a civilization 
starter kit.
I've planted a hundred trees in a day. I've pressed 5,000 bricks in 
one day from the dirt beneath my feet and built a tractor in six 
days. From what I've seen, this is only the beginning.
If this idea is truly sound, then the implications are significant. A 
greater distribution of the means of production, environmentally 
sound supply chains, and a newly-relevant DIY maker culture can hope 
to transcend artificial scarcity. We're exploring the limits of what 
we all can do to make a better world with open hardware technology.
Thank you.
(Applause)
What to watch next
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