[p2p-research] decentralizing open source bike production?

[Samuel Rose]

Patrick wrote:

On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Samuel Rose<samuel.rose at gmail.com> wrote:

>> many easily modifiable bicycle design cores (plus a standard way to
> >contribute more cores) that people can download and fabricate


>Fabricate?  What the hell does that mean?  I don't have access to the
>Physical Sources required for fabrication!

>How are we, the people supposed to fabricate without land, buildings,
>tools, etc.?  That is the question the article is asking.

>How can you (and so many others on these lists) so readily brush aside
>the difficulty of *instantiating* these designs?

>We, the people do not have the Physical Sources required for 'fabrication'.

>Sure design is important.  But that is only a (very small) part of the problem.

>The complexity of designing a bicycle is on the verge of trivial.

>The primary difficulty is access to the mass, time, space and energy
required to 'host' that design in physical reality.

>Most people on these lists seem to think we will fix this in the
>future through rep-rap robots.  Quit dreaming.

I think you are are misinterpreting what is being discussed

Actually, I ran out of time, but was going to follow up my last email
by stating that efforts to get people the means of production in the
places that the open source bike project wants to serve seem to me to
be a higher priority than the design of bikes themselves.

Flexible fabrication technology will be a key way to bring the means
of production to people. This is already emerging now.

This technology does exist. It is possible for them to produce
biofuel, utilize wind and solar power, and create and deploy low cost
machines that can fabricate not just bicycles, but many things that
they might need. i agree with you, patrick, that this seems to be a
higher priority in the grand scheme of things.

Actually, design and the means to produce the designs are tightly coupled.

Anyway, you raise a good point. Impoverished people could really
benefit from access to the means to produce food, energy, and the
things they need for physiological and psychological survival.

Patrick, you've been communicating this message to me for quite at
least a couple of years now, and your solution seems to me to be sound
in logic, but impossible to convince the critical mass of people to
adopt and participate in what you are proposing.






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