Basic Needs Construction Set
Contents
Introduction
The following are rough notes, meant to be refined over time.
The idea of the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) has the potential to revolutionize society for the better, and a glimmer of that possibility was shown with the reception of Marcin Jakubowski's 2011 TED talk.
At the time of writing, more than 10 years have passed, and the ambition of the idea has yet to be realized.
Why is this?
Perhaps the idea is too ambitious and broad.
This article proposes to narrow the scope of the GVCS, in order to create a more tangible and realizable goal.
Thus, what is the "Basic Needs Construction Set"?
Four Basic Needs
The Basic Needs Construction Set (BNCS) is best introduced by two existing ideas:
- The Global Village Construction Set
- and Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Reader's of this article should be familiar with #1 already.
In #2, a prominent psychologist, Abraham Maslow, proposed a categorization of human needs, commonly portrayed as a pyramid.
The bottom-most layer of the pyramid represents physiological needs such as water, food, shelter, and energy.
Maslow asserts that humans must have the needs in the bottom layers met before focusing on needs in higher layers such as love and belonging.
The Basic Needs Construction Set is the set of machines which provide people their four basic needs (in order of importance):
- Water 💧
- Food 🌱
- Shelter 🏠
- and Energy ⚡
Goals
The goals of the Basic Needs Construction Set are not nearly as ambitious as the GVCS.
We only aim to produce the machines which provide these basic needs directly, rather than the machines which provide materials for building the machines.
For example, the Seed Home v2 would be a machine in the set, but if lumber is required, a Sawmill is not included in the set.
Reliance on the globalized economy for materials to build the machines is necessary, but machines in the set should provide people's day-to-day needs.
Thus, the Basic Needs Construction Set can be thought of as a subset of the GVCS prioritized by what is most important for human survival.
Is this prioritization of the GVCS useful?
If people have their four basic needs met, via machines in the set, then they can be freed to devote time towards other machines in the broader GVCS set.
Targeting either machines which are needed for machines in the BNCS, or machines that provide higher needs such as transportation or entertainment.
Some think that freedom of time to devote towards the GVCS should be solved through distributive enterprise, open-source product development, and entrepreneurship.
However, this path may not appeal to all.
Machines
These machines revolve around a shelter, like the Seed Eco Home, which incorporates dedicated sub-systems for providing one of the four basic needs into an integrated whole.
- Water 💧
- Rain Water Harvesting System
- Sea Water Desalinization System
- Food 🌱
- Aquaponics Greenhouse
- Shelter 🏠
- Seed Eco Home
- Energy ⚡
- Wind Turbine
- Solar Panels & Photovoltaics
- Biogas Digester
Each of these machines may interrelate with each other, such as using rain water for dishes in the seed-eco home and re-using that as greywater in the aquaponics greenhouse.
Deliverables
This work aims to have designs for all machines readily accessible via a web-browser with 3D visualization.
All designs would be available in open-source CAD software such as FreeCAD.
Software would be developed to support simulation and "What if ..." questions.
After digital designs are sufficiently developed, a physical pilot site would be created to put the designs into practice.
Then a feedback loop between digital and physical development would be established.
A rough guess is that a core team of 3 - 8 people would be required for this effort, but roles & responsibilities would need to be identified.
The core team and pilot site would be the beginning of an OSE Campus.
Core Team Requirements
People have other needs besides the four basic ones outlined above, such as health care, communication, and transportation. All of which require money for things like health insurance, a cell phone, and car.
The BNCS would only appeal to a rare set of pioneers which need very little (i.e. minimalists), or have their higher needs met via pre-saved capital, investments, passive income streams, contract work, and / or odd jobs. All of which would NOT demand the typical 40 hours people spend at their job a week, and free them to focus on this higher pursuit.
If a suitable pilot site location is chosen, then the need for things such as a cell phone or car may be limited.
Pilot Site Location
It makes the most sense to pick an already developed site which has some infrastructure already established.
Examples include Factor e Farm or an Ecovillage (such as Dancing Rabbit) which is open to progressive technolgical development.
The advantage of integrating into an existing Ecovillage community is that they're already familiar with living together in a community and resolving conflict.
Valuable skills needed for a team trying to achieve a goal like this.
