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A team of open source enthusiasts is putting together instructions for how to build 50 tools essential to establishing – or reestablishing – a civilization.
The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is being developed by the Open Source Ecology (OSE) group, and includes such basic tools as a well drill, steam engine, and brick making machine, along with more complicated devices such as a bulldozer, 3D printer, and 50kW wind turbine. These can be built from scrap or recycled materials at a fraction of the cost of commercial machinery.
Originally posted by ManFromEurope
Define "civilization" first.
I sense that there are many different versions of this definition right here in this thread .....
In a Super-SHTF-scenario (large meteor, iceage, nuclear winter, etc.) we should be happy for surviving alone...,
.... we should be happy for surviving alone, and really could do without this "childish" 3d-printer - yes, mankind survived long long long enough without this technology. Hinges are to be build from a dozen natural resources.
Originally posted by Shadowalker
All of those things already exist. Most people cant afford them and if they need them they rent them.
The whole thing sounds like city nerds sitting around at starbucks......
Like the southpark underwear gnomes...
step one: steal underwear
step four: profit.
Okay, this is your first impression of good old Passive-Aggressism. I will try to ignore that the whole of my posting, as it is showing through several of your lines as seen below.
Originally posted by Maxmars
Originally posted by ManFromEurope
Define "civilization" first.
Of course, let us entertain two definitions; because I am obviously out of place here; and it's clear that my OP was not of interesting to most.
My first definition of civilization would go something like this: A civilization is an enduring socially and culturally developed way of expressing a population's presence in the world. Technology is its footprint. To be civilized, is to accept that there is a civic aspect to human engagement, implicitly accepting the social contract demanded by the paradigms of the particular civilization. Most civilizations develop internal bodies of thought and discipline, like institutions (marriage. common law, spirituality, et al.) which are tended to by specialists, (and whose practice are usually protected by traditionalists.)
Our second, less wordy definition comes from the dictionary of expedience: A civilization is any collection of society (or societies) that maintains its own existence through defending and propagating it's paradigms, traditions, and cultural metrics.
In either case, it seems to be something which can only be considered from a collective or cooperative effort... in other words the predatory, adversarial, and competitive aspects of the population's nature becomes secondary to immediate self-gratification.
This is of course easily rejected by those who court the romantic notion of the imagery associated with hard-core survival-ism against a perpetually predatory foe (thank you Hollywood.)
Originally posted by Maxmars
..
I sense that there are many different versions of this definition right here in this thread .....
This is obviously true. I wrongly estimated that this forum would be receptive to the idea of reestablishing a world where children didn't represent a liability. Where the elderly and or sick weren't better off being 'put down.' Clearly I a m out of synch with the glorious ideas of blasting enemies with lethal force, setting booby traps, avoiding death from exposure,and the definition of 'survival' being being limited to being able to find grubs and berries to eat.
What mistake?
In a Super-SHTF-scenario (large meteor, iceage, nuclear winter, etc.) we should be happy for surviving alone...,
In fact, in a Super SHFT-scenario, I would have thought this kind of approach ('restoring civilization') to survival would be even more relevant. It was admittedly my mistake.
Mankind did survive most of its time by the minimums. Agriculture didn't come from nothing, it had to be developed. What do you eat as long as those fruits weren't ripe? You didn't make it clear in your OP what you want to talk about - helping underdeveloped countries or trying to survive in a mass-extinction-level-event? In the latter I would always trade your 3D printer for seeds or fertiliser.
.... we should be happy for surviving alone, and really could do without this "childish" 3d-printer - yes, mankind survived long long long enough without this technology. Hinges are to be build from a dozen natural resources.
We are tool-builders. We need tools. Surviving of the minimums of nature is great; but it does not protect the specifies from extinction as well as the cooperation of an entire community to care for itself and it's posterity. You think the 3D printer is childish? I find that very interesting. So much so that I would say you missed the entire point of the project.
Most people here are assuming that this "kit" is some kind of consumerism nonsense... like "buy this Coleman product" or "my high caliber rounds are more effective than yours" and "which hunting knife should I buy?"
This IS in fact an information product - FREE OF CHARGE (hence open source) and it is not a product to buy like the link provided earlier. It is an initiative to ensure that the possibility becomes more reasonable that a cluster of survivors of a major disruptive event in our civilization can overcome the crisis without having to spend decades reinventing technologies....
By the way, I agree that books are way more important than e-books - but only at the onset of the recovery... after that books will only matter insofar as people can have a place to collect, share, and access them.