May 30, 2017 at 08:17PM

Reddit scan:Okay, so this idea is not about permaculture specifically, but it might envelop permaculture, and in fact I really hope it does.It's hard to explain shortly, but please read through the whole little essay here and maybe watch some of the media I link and let me know what your thoughts are.So, I've been researching this very interesting model for some time now.I'm sure you've heard of makerspaces. A publically accessible space, (often it is in a library), which houses machines such as 3d printers as well as a community of people who like to make things with them.A less well known, but arguably far more important iteration of this concept is seen in the organization known as Fab Labs. I will quickly link some info on them here from something I wrote elsewhere:Started by the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, Fab Labs are now becoming a global phenomenon with over 800 Labs, and operating on every continent.Each Fab Lab hosts a common set of machines, and touts the ability to be able to manufacture (almost) anything.With a high quality distributed educational model including its own accreditation system, as well as open public access and operating on the ethos of design global, manufacture local. Fab Labs works as a global knowledge commons with hubs operating all over the world.This is a good video to get an overview of the Labs and their potential: http://ift.tt/2rCwPcA is a short TED lecture by the professor who started the whole thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n-APFrlXDsHere's a documentary about a guy who travels to Fab Labs in Norway, Indonesia, Africa, and more (even visits Obama's grandmother and gives her a Lab-made pair of shoes!): http://ift.tt/2sbRVvi are a whole host of cultural and educational emergent effects that go with this model. These Labs break down barriers between cultures, and bring some of the most high quality education in the entire world to 3rd world villages.A Fab Lab in rural Afghanistan was able to allow the local people to create their own Ethernet communications infrastructure out of self manufactured antennas: http://ift.tt/2rCsCFK energy efficient solar house design was created in Barcelona: http://ift.tt/2sbzveh Kenya, local members of the Fab Lab have created cheap novel handheld medical devices for detecting veins in patients: http://ift.tt/2rCvClL Indonesia locals have collaborated with international members to create a plastic waste shredder and recycler to help solve their plastic waste problem: http://ift.tt/2sbPlFS interesting to note, the complexity of things that can be manufactured by the machines in small scale decentralized labs like these is growing. A great example here is Local Motors, a small scale collaborative car manufacturing microfactory which can create customly designed cars, designed the world's first 3D printed car, among other models, and has been in business for over 8 years now.It gets more interesting when you see what Fab Labs is trying to do. Not content with a global network of open innovation hubs, there is now a movement to create "Fab Cities", with a variety of Fab Labs located all throughout every major city in the world, and bringing production almost completely in to the city itself, while remaining communicative with the network of all the others globally.The website for the Fab City project is here: http://fab.city/The speed at which Fab Labs are growing globally and which cities are signing on is surprisingly approaching Moore's Law levels in recent years, where the number of Labs is doubling every year and a half or so. (This according to the head of the MIT department that started it all, Neil Gershenfeld).The first Fab City proposal was first initiated in Barcelona, as far as I am familiar. This article details the reasoning and vision and prototype models of the initial Fab City concept by one of the heads of the Fab Lab systems in Barcelona: http://ift.tt/2k2IRUg (fascinating read)The interviewee in this article, Thomas Diez, did a recent TED talk in 2013, which in my opinion is the best intro to the entire concept as well as its historical framing and present/future consequences. Definitely give this one a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEWRiW1naFcThis lines up with a whole host of other organizations which have been driving at a very similar concept.The P2P Foundation has been arguing for a transition to a "commons based peer production" model for some time now. Their network includes P2P Labs which is a research arm, P2P wiki, which is a wiki database of relevant ideas and knowledge, etc.Appropedia is a wiki for "appropriate technology", "for collaborative solutions in sustainability, appropriate technology, poverty reduction, and permaculture."And Fab Labs fit into this framework nicely.Perhaps the bigger vision is that a Fab Lab mode of production integrates into a circular economy, which is one that reduces waste and environmental impact as much as physically possible by feeding into itself instead of moving products and materials straight from production to use to landfill.Further methods of localization and circularization have to do with food and bionutrient waste. Urban farming, aquaponics, vertical farming, city scale permaculture projects, all of this leads towards localization of food and changing the dietary economy. And bionutrient recycling can be a productive task that yields energy and food and also carbon sequestration.Other resonant ideas include those that look to the city as the source of innovative solutions in the future. Cities are by far the most progressive and readily adaptive structures of human society 1. They are hubs of innovation and creativity. And meanwhile, they are responsible for 70% of carbon emissions. And very soon there will be ~66% of all humans living in them.Imagine a model of interconnected cities which model transition methods to each other and to nodes of engaged citizens within them. This could be the fuel for a "Global Game" of transition, a sort of friendly, but extremely important, competition between cities to improve sustainability, innovation, and quality of life. This has resonances to Buckminster Fuller's concept of the World Game, which I've long been a fan of.There are already models in which cities take the prime focus for change making. C40 is a global network of cities working together to help meet the challenges of climate change. In the US, Sierra Club's Ready for 100 campaign has been getting city after city to sign on and agree to a timeframe and series of efforts to go 100% renewable. Here, Benjamin Barber gives a TED talk on a concept he also wrote a book on, "If Mayors Ruled the World", which outlines the theory for why its a superior model of politics and change.The combination of all these threads leads to something which I believe is utterly profound. This can be a model which creates a new (and I think superior) way of doing:economicseducationcollaboration across borderssustainabilitycreating local human communityresilience in the event of climatological, financial, or social disruptionIt would mark a fundamental shift in the history of human organization.Interestingly, it would appease both communists/socialists and capitalists/libertarians. It's a voluntary model which democratizes access to production.It also resolves the economic globalization vs nationalism debate. Production is local, communication and design is global. No more forgotten cities. Just endeavor towards getting the set of machines needed, and your community is tapped in to an extremely innovative and productive global economy.It opens up avenues for communicating meaningfully with foreign cultures. In my opinion, one of the biggest threats in the world is the increasing alienation of the western countries and the middle eastern countries. Especially considering the climatological duress that region of the world will likely soon face. But Fab Labs have proven to open beneficial channels of communication and friendship in places like Afghanistan, and maybe soon Afghan or Iraqi or Syrian kids can talk to kids in Ohio as they collaborate on a model design to fit each region.It also would potentially speed humanitarian aid and relief. From 3D printing disaster relief, to making sure that a situation like the economic and food crisis unfolding in Venezuela is made impossible.A similar piece listed in the P2P wiki makes the case that "Decentralized Provisioning of the Basic Necessities is the Fight of the Century".What this would need to take off, in my opinion, is simply awareness and effort. This has not gotten anywhere near to trickling down into public consciousness, and it still seems to not be in the consciousness of thinkers or futurists.But I believe a wholescale revolutionary process is possible with this system.Please, critique, or discuss, add on, or say whatever you like. What are your thoughts?(Thanks for reading!) http://ift.tt/2rCHmVi by Towson Makerspace