Marcin Jakubowski lives an ascetic, geeky life on his Factor e Farm:
Jakubowski has named the place Factor e Farm, though the goal isn’t just the cultivation of crops. Rather, it’s to create a completely self-sufficient community that produces not only its own food, but also energy, tools, and raw materials for making those tools. Jakubowski’s ultimate purpose is both to live off the grid and to teach others—whether out of choice or necessity—how to do so too.
In 2007, Jakubowski began working on a minimum set of machines necessary to sustain a modern civilization. It comprises bread ovens, aluminum smelters, tractors, brick presses, and 46 others. Factor e Farm has already built 15 of these devices, including a computer-controlled torch table that can cut intricate patterns on metal with a jet of superheated ionized gas. Work will commence soon on a cement mixer, a sawmill, and an industrial robot.
Most of Factor e Farm’s equipment runs on an in-house invention called a Power Cube. It’s a black metal box about the size of an office copier, with a 27-horsepower engine that runs a hydraulic pump. The Power Cube’s engine can drive the bulldozers; the pumps can power the table saws and other smaller, stationary machines.
Jakubowski expects to have all 50 tools finished by 2015 and publishes progress reports on the Open Source Ecology website. He shares the designs for all the machines and produces how-to-make-it videos. He wants as many people as possible to take a crack at improving the designs.
By living in abject poverty, Jakubowski hopes to demonstrate that people can live without the help of corporations:
Showing up established corporations is critical to Jakubowski, because, he says, they spend too much time obsessing over patents, spending millions on commercials, and generally getting in the way of progress. “We are calling our work the Open Source Economy,” he says. “We can collaborate on the machines and publish everything openly. We can reduce all of this competitive waste. You have to start somewhere.”
Ah, yes, all that competitive waste:
Factor e Farm has 400 fruit trees, although none produce fruit in any meaningful quantity yet. A dilapidated greenhouse not far from the workshop has nothing but weeds growing inside. As a result, almost all of the farm’s food and supplies come from Wal-Mart and other stores in nearby towns. “We are going through major growing pains,” Jakubowski explains.
These guys were doing something interesting with their brick press a couple of years ago, but I stopped tracking them. How did they come onto your radar?
I’m actually quite sympathetic to the notion of rebooting civilization in case of disaster — but you have to recognize that self-sufficiency is poverty.
In case of societal collapse, mere poverty is better than the alternative, but we shouldn’t confuse an insurance policy with a path to prosperity.
A more direct answer to your question though is that I simply forgot to tip my hat to Nyrath‘s Twitter feed.
Ahh, sadness. Ideas get all twisted out of shape. Private enterprise space ventures are being criticized by Republicans, and Jerry Pournelle’s idea of going “A Step Farther Out: Survival with Style” is being forgotten in exchange for people “living in abject poverty… to demonstrate that people can live without the help of corporations”.
Ooh, Jerry Pournelle’s A Step Farther Out: Survival with Style is available on Kindle.
I loved that book, but long ago lost my copy. I should get one. Right about now I need a solid dose of techno-optimism. My humors are in disarray.