Industrial ecology response to Jim.

The documentation on the GVCS is not well put together. It's what you might expect from people that are bending metal rather than writing books. But I need to respond to Jim and will do so in this post.

Jim asks, "Backyard mechanics are making heavy equipment out of dirt?"

I say yes and now have to verify that assertion. First, they do get steel from dirt. And they recycle that steel.

Core value #7: Closed-Loop Manufacturing and Material Cycles – Any product should never be a waste, but a feedstock for another process. Our project relies on recycling metal into virgin feedstock for producing further GVCS technologies.

Core value #19: Complete Economy – The work of OSE is intended to be a workable blueprint for a complete economy. Our designs are geared for a maker lifestyle on the part of community members. This is also known as a neo-subsistence lifestyle – where communities can provide all the requirements of a complete economy, such that trade is only an option, not a necessity.

Get that? Trade is an option. Can they live up to that? The next value is important to start up communities.

Core value #31: Flexible Fabrication – This is a mode of production distinct from specialization. In flexible fabrication, general purpose machinery is used by highly skilled workers to produce a wide array of products – as opposed to specialized machines, operated by highly deskilled workers, producing only a single item. Our means to flexible fabrication is the open source fab lab.

Specialization is more efficient but flexible is important when you don't have a large labor force.

# 32: Technological Recursion – The flexible fabrication technology also allows producers to produce more complex machines and parts. This allows a local community to, eventually, attain the capacity to produce any technology known to humankind.

I guess I should have started with that one. Again, I need to show to what extent they've actually attained that.

#36: Replicability – OSE work is intended to be replicable, self-replicating, and viral. The open source nature, low-cost, and simplicity of our designs are key to this.

Can they build a tractor from dirt? Let start with building the tractor from components. That takes two people eight hours. Here are the components. You will note that they give sources for many of the components, but for those made of steel a machinist can make all of those themselves. As #19 says, purchase is never required, just an option.

Since the steel comes from dirt; yes, they can make a tractor from dirt.