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About Me

Marcin came to the U.S. from Poland as a child. He graduated with honors from Princeton and earned his PhD in fusion physics from the University of Wisconsin. Frustrated with the lack of relevance to pressing world issues in his education, he founded Open Source Ecology in 2003 in order to make closed-loop manufacturing a reality. He began development on the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) (see http://vimeo.com/16106427), an open source DIY tool set of 50 different industrial machines necessary to create modern civilization. His main interest is evolving to freedom by eliminating resource scarcity as the main force behind geopolitical relations - with the wise use of modern technology adapted for human service.
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I am a boundary-crossing iconoclast who believes that material well-being should not be a privilege that only the few can enjoy. I believe that the necessity 'to make a living' should not be an underlying force in civilization that prevents people from pursuing their true passions. I am convinced that by injecting a little wisdom into our technology, we can tame technology for true human service. I believe that open society and open source economic development is a route to abundance and prosperity for all. I am convinced that until we learn to share, there will not be enough for everybody. Sharing means engaging in open source economic development. Open source economic development is an economic paradigm where everybody has access to best practices, optimized product designs, and access to local production. I believe that one day, open access to the means of economic production may become a favored option over monopoly money - and stimulate much higher levels of innovation that are currently possible. I am also convinced that economies based on artificial scarcity are coming to the end of their useful life. Abundance is not an airy ideal - but a state of mind and a rigorous condition where people have not only the access to knowledge and tools of production - but also to free time in which to cultivate their wisdom, honor, and happiness. I am dedicating my life to live by these principles, and to make this a practical option for anyone who chooses to do so.

In practical terms, I am looking for collaborators who are interested in developing a world-class center for open source product development - with the stated goals of eradicating poverty as we know it; increasing meaning in peoples' lives; and evolving to freedom beyond material scarcity - while living regeneratively with balance in our life support systems. I am looking for people who endorse open source culture - to the point of understanding that open, collaborative development - if carried out effectively - has the potential to produce results far beyond and fear-based development path. To date, nobody has figured out how to truly leverage open economic development for disruptive social change. There are many hints that this is happening, but to date, open economic development has been grossly under-utilized. Our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal is to develop and propel the open source economic development methodology into the mainstream.

See my CV at http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Marcin_Jakubowski

Location:
United States, Maysville, MO
Current organization:
Open Source Ecology
Current role:
Executive Director
Gender:
Male
I am:
Designer, Doctor, Educator/Teacher, Engineer, Entrepreneur, Industrialist, Philanthropist, Scientist, Social entrepreneur, Technologist
Languages:
Polish
My website links:
Open Source Ecology wiki, Global Village Construction Set
TED conferences attended:
TEDGlobal 2012, TED2012, TED2011
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TEDCRED 100+ TED Fellow

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Distributive Economics and open enterprises - or open source economic development that distributes wealth for everyone's benefit. See http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Distributive_Economics

An idea worth spreading

Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set, an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing and can be seen as a life-size lego-like set of modular tools that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, the mountains of Oregon, or in the heart of Africa.

Talk to me about

open source economic development, distributive economics, open engineering, resource development, resilient community creation, Open Source Ecology, evolving to freedom, positive psychology

People don't know that I'm good at

unicycling, drawing, boundary-crossing, iconoclastic approaches, meditation, focusing

My TED Story

People can create their own worlds in video games, online virtual reality, or Lego blocks. What if we had the same power in terms of creating our own physical realities? Then we could create our means of survival: comfortable habitats beyond resource scarcity - where we can then focus on our true passions and interests. To this end, we're developing the Global Village Construction Set - a construction set for relocalizing production to generate true wealth and meaning - by the use of modern but appropriate technology. By open-sourcing critical pieces of infrastructure-creation, such as solar energy production or conversion of rocks to aluminum or soil to food - we can master our ability to survive. Is this possible on a small scale? We are beginning to demonstrate that this can be done on the scale of villages - which thus become totally self-determining, and where people can begin to pursue their most creative endeavors - beyond artificial scarcity of the Matrix.

Comments

  • TEDCred score: +156 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

  • A comment on Conversation: Open Source University, Open Source Civilization

    Feb 17 2012: I like crowd-source challenges. We have one up right now at GrabCAD for the open source backhoe - http://grabcad.com/challenges/lifetrac-backhoe

    and we had another challenge on quick connect wheels for the tractor - http://grabcad.com/challenges/lifetrac-quick-connect-wheels

  • A reply on Conversation: Open Source University, Open Source Civilization

    Feb 17 2012: Yes, we are planning on building the Solar Fire system, while making improvements with a modern steam engine, automatic solar tracking, hail protection, and mirror surface cleaning mechanism.

  • A comment on Conversation: Open Source University, Open Source Civilization

    Feb 16 2012: The concept that we promote in the Global Village Construction set it not 'personal production' as much as it is the 'community-based solution of relocalized production.' Our experiment relies on determining the smallest scale which would allow for the creation of advanced civilization - minus the compromises of global geopolitics. Yes, the heart of such a proposiiton is access to clean, renewable energy. Distributed power production on the scale of communities is a possible solution. The best solution for this I've seen to date on decentralized power is the SolarFire solar concentrator system from India - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7diA_bnoc4 - which the producer is offering for $12,000 FOB.
  • +2

    A comment on Conversation: Open Source University, Open Source Civilization

    Feb 16 2012: Joshua, your proposition is the next step for civilization. Can you propose tactical strategies that could get us there?

  • A reply on Talk: Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

    May 8 2011: Let's start with the Mobile Solar Micro-Factory, hinted in today's blog post - http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/2011/05/solar-fire/

    If you or anybody wants to lead the writing of a business plan, we welcome the assistance.

  • A reply on Talk: Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

    May 8 2011: Juliana, do we know any people who would fund the development of such a venture? The concept is attractive in many contexts - so who can put some energy behind it to accelerate the the development process today?

  • A reply on Talk: Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

    Apr 25 2011: Good point, Dave. I have seen that product design takes on a different form when the design principles are influenced by the principles you describe. Those with eyes to see appreciate the results, and those who cannot see tend to mock them.
  • +2

    A reply on Talk: Marcin Jakubowski: Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

    Apr 25 2011: Walt, good point. There is no reason why standards and certifications cannot be pursued or met by open source products. That's just another layer on top of open source product design. If someone is selling products in a heavily-regulated environment, such certification may be necessary. In re-localized communities, where the societal dynamics are different and where human relations are more evolved, and such regulation takes on a less prominent role.

    In the next economy, we are hoping that heavy regulation grows less important as human responsibility increases. This is a principle upon which this country was founded.

  • A reply on Conversation: The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a low-cost, high-performance, open source 'civilization starter kit.'

    Apr 25 2011: We need a number of Subject Matter Experts - http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Subject_Matter_Experts

    We have 8 prototypes so far - see http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Crash_Course

    There is 50 total that we need to do - http://opensourceecology.org.nyud.net/gvcs.php

    If you can help, see the status page - http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/GVCS_Tools_Status

    We are also considering this development methodology - http://opencapitalist.org/content/detailed-open-source-project-creation

    We need design work, CAD, and systems engineering as the first stage. Jesse, contact me on the design aspects - opensourceecology at gmail dot com.

  • A reply on Conversation: The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a low-cost, high-performance, open source 'civilization starter kit.'

    Apr 25 2011: We are currently negotiating partnership with Angola University - http://www.angolauniversity.org/ - the first university in Angola, and we have discussed the creation of a Department of Open Source Economic Development. Africa can lead the way in this, if not the developed countries. That would be an interesting event if this succeeds. We are currently looking for a curriculum developer to define a curriculum at the certificate, assiciate, or bachelor's degree level. See brief note on this towards the end of this blog post - http://bit.ly/eKQkJ3 . I will blog about this more fully.
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