I opened my email this morning and received a link to a TED talk from my buddy Conrad Hicks. I knew it had to be obscure … but it was likely that it would reveal something interesting (-:
And it did … the world of open source farm designs and Marcin Jakubowski, the founder of Open Source Ecology.
Open Source Blueprints For 50+ Farm Machines
At a farm in rural Missouri, he’s been successfully creating and building open source farm implements and putting those ideas to the test … and is now open-sourcing the blueprints for 50+ farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own quality machines, tools, tractors or harvesters from scratch … and evidently very cheaply.
And that’s only the first step in their project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village.
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.
Check out his TED speech here for a delightful 5 minute introduction – and take a look at Marcin’s Open Source Ecology website for more info, and the plans themselves.
And, take a look at the Open Source Ecology web site for links to existing and planned designs. And – hey – think about sharing your designs and ideas.
And in case you didn’t know, Conrad himself has also done some amazing work as a blacksmith and artist, which you can see here.
Exciting stuff – happy Thursday friends!
Richard