"The Real Life Civilization-Building Kit"

[Jaeger]

<iframe src="" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<a href="">GVCS in 2 Minutes - openecology.org</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2333113">Adam Mitchell</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.

"Making these machines, the group explains, is 8 times cheaper than buying them from manufacturers, on average. And in a world where resources might be scarcer than we anticipate more quickly than we anticipate, their ambitious project could prove to be a vital one. They’re publishing the full schematics and diagrams on their Wiki, so anyone can use them once shit goes Mad Max. If the internet still works, that is. OK, maybe you should print them out now just to be safe."

--Jaeger

[DerGolgo]

Impressed doesn't begin to approach how I feel about this.
This is fucking brilliant!

[Sisyphus]

That's great. All I need now is to become totally unemployed so I have more time to build stuff!
Really, All this stuff is great, I'm glad someone open-sourced all this but when does anyone have time to build stuff to create their own village? I think this stuff should be shown to USAID and NGAs to help the poorest of the poor improve thier lives now, so we can perhaps worry less about reconstructing ours later.

[Sisyphus]

God, I'm such a fucking pessimist.

[Jaeger]

God, I'm such a fucking pessimist.

No, you're just paying attention.

--Jaeger

[DerGolgo]

That's great. All I need now is to become totally unemployed so I have more time to build stuff!
Really, All this stuff is great, I'm glad someone open-sourced all this but when does anyone have time to build stuff to create their own village? I think this stuff should be shown to USAID and NGAs to help the poorest of the poor improve thier lives now, so we can perhaps worry less about reconstructing ours later.

I don't think open-source tinkerers are really the target demographic here.

The fact that it's open source and simple means that simple machine shops, which exist even in the third world, or simple factories could make it. And adapt it to their needs and capabilities. That makes this a doubly good idea for developing economies.
Instead of what little money they have or we in the industrialized world deign to give them as aid going for more expensive, sophisticated to a degree not necessarily required commercial equipment that is imported, it could go to setting up local industries to make such simple machines.
This could put agricultural mechanization and construction into the hand of third world dirt farmers, without the usual debt spiral.

[Sisyphus]

All the nifty machines are great, but there should be some tutorial on biofuels, or some sort of closed-loop fuel resource to power this stuff. Cutting torches are great and all but they're one example of things we take for granted in our industrial countries. I've seen some aweome bush mechanics in Africa and eslewhere do some amazing shit, but it takes a LOT of energy and time to do it. Something on toolmaking would be a good basic, too. Basic electricity production, smelting of metals, tooling, homemade welders, carbon-arc cutters, and that sort of thing. Without these basic things, the rest is 400-level stuff.
Still, it's encouraging to see.

[Toonce(s)]

Where is the Tank template?

[rolly]

Where is the Tank template?

Building, civilization building. No one needs an open source civilization destroying kit, that niche is taken care of by your tax dollars.

[guitargeek]

I HAVE POSITIVE OPINIONS OF THIS!

[Beemer Dan]

We need to get all those kids playing Starcraft at tournament levels to get on board with this! I love the idea of a world where things like patents and innovation are shared for the common good rather than locked up in vaults so tight that only multi-billion dollar corporations can do anything with them. Capitalism only incentivizes the wealthy to be more clever about how they steal, and forces the people to be blind consumers.