Open Source Civilization Kit

With the current political debacle threatening to undermine our economy, we should, once again, be concerned with going it "on our own." I don't mean running into the woods with a gun and tent and a gallon jug of water.  I mean that we should figure just what it takes to maintain a civilized standard of living and then do something substantive about insuring that those things get done. Leave the squabbling to those better suited to do it in Washington. That's why they go there, not to help us.

Marcin Jakubowski has a Ph. D. in fusion physics and is a TED 2011 Fellow. He is in the process of developing a toolkit of "50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small civilization with modern comforts," called the Global Village Construction Set. It includes everything from a tractor to a 3-D printer, pieced together with interchangeable parts, motors and power units as if it were a "life-sized lego set." They currently have eight prototypes available on their Wiki, complete with designs, how-to videos for assembly, and budgets. His group, Open Source Ecology, wants the kit to lower "the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing" for the DIY community, and even extend their ideas for use in the developing world.

Here's a video of his group's project.



Here's a link to Jakubowski's four minute TED talk from 2011.