Syk0 saje at 13:21, 25 May 2011

2011-05-25T13:21:02Z

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	In summary - it's $25k, minus on-site earnings, plus 2 years in time - and you can buy out at the bottom. The rest is under your control.		In summary - it's $25k, minus on-site earnings, plus 2 years in time - and you can buy out at the bottom. The rest is under your control.

			[[Category: Proposal 2008]]

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VI. FACILITY REPLICATION

a. CAPITALIZATION

It is instructive to describe the costs involved in replicating self-sufficient, off-grid productive enterprise communities as put forth in this proposal. Table 4 shows the cost for ground-up building of a facility's most important infrastructure features. This does not include land costs. The costs are shown for three scenarios. The Cost column reflects the business-as-usual scenario where one buys the entire infrastructure from the outside, in a pre-open source economy. The Open Source Cost is one where we begin with access to low-cost open source equipment140 and where we utilize as much of on-site resources as possible- such as the soil, trees, and solar income of the site.

The third option refers to our facility replication program, which is under development.141 It occurs for people who study in a 2-year long immersion replication program with us at the Factor e Farm facility. As part of their learning eperience, participants produce some of the infrastructure necessary to start a new facility. Participants engage in the following:

1. propagate plant material for orchards and landscapes
2. breed necessary livestock, such as goats, chickens, fish, and bees that they can take to the next OSE Facility
3. produce technological items in our Flex Fab Lab
4. are entitled to lease our equipment at cost
5. can earn while at Factor e Farm by participating in any of its on-site enterprises

This means that expenses embodied in the OSE-Assisted Cost may be offset by earnings that are part of the training program, such that capitalization becomes a non-issue for stewards interested in our program. OSE upholds this commitment to capitalization assistance, as we are interested in qualified individuals to step into stewardship roles, and not only individuals who can pay for the replication costs. This philosophy underlies all of our cost reduction efforts, and helps to explain why we are putting so much attention on the cost aspects of this adventure. We believe that this attention to cost is a foundation for transcending the money issue that is involved in all kinds of good work.

Item
Cost
Open Source Cost
OSE-Assisted Cost
CEB press
25000142
1000143
0
Mobile Sawmill
8000144
1000145
0
Chainsaw
500
500
500
Renewable energy system, 4 kW146
30000147
4000148
3000
Living space, 1000 sq ft
50000149
2000
2000
Workshop and storage, 2000 sq ft
12000150
2000
2000
Advanced greenhouse, 1000 sq ft
20000151
1000152
1000
Plastic extruder
10000153
1000154
0
Skid loader/tractor
10000155
4000156
4000
Car
10000
4000157
4000
Edible Landscaping158
2000
100
0
Spader159
5000
1500
1500
Rototiller160
1200
500
500
CNC machine shop161
10000
1000
1000
XYZ table162
8400
900
900
Metal casting equipment163
1000
200
200
Power inverter, grid tie, 10 kW164
8000
1000
1000
Battery bank, 20 kWhr165
3000
3000
0
Battery charger
500
100
100
Electronics fabrication166
2100
300
300
Well drilling167
10000
1300
300
Vehicle fuels168
4000/year
1000
1000
Cooking gas
500/year
1000
1000
TOTAL
$221,500
$31,200
$24,100

Table 4. Captalization costs for building a living-working Global Village facility.

There is an approximate Factor 7 cost reduction in building a new facility in the open source context: $222k is reduced to $31k. We are assuming that the low costs are obtained by one building certain machines from scratch with the sweat of one's brow. This means that labor is not included, and high skill is required. This eliminates all but perhaps 5% of the population form achieving such a program. We mention such a program as the highest form of self-sufficiency foreseeable, if one is interested in buying out at the bottom.169 By this term, we mean that one does not wait to save big cash for retirement, but can quit compulsory labor early, because of the attraction of independence and the low capital cost (minus labor) for doing so.

A particular enabling feature for buying out at the bottom is to produce turnkey generative technologies for producing necessities: fuels, building materials, food, energy, machinery, etc. That is precisely the aim of our technological developments. All the technologies are available.170

It should be noted that the Global Village facility of interest is entirely sufficient in food, energy, fuel, cooking gas, housing, and earning potential. Earning may be accomplished by flexible fabrication, self-employment, orchard and nursery operations, power sales to the electric grid, organizational work, or anything one chooses. One's bills in this scenario include only land taxes. Beyond these, one is free to pursue a life of creative pursuits.

It is important to understand the context for the open source cost and OSE-Assisted Cost. The first thing to be said is that there is no free lunch, in that equipment is available, but it takes operator labor and skill to utilize the equipment for productive purposes171. We are assuming the availability of CEB, sawmill, and plastic extruder for all building applications. We are assuming an energy infrastructure, for stationary and mobile power, is based on the boundary layer turbine. We are assuming a nursery for generating plant materials. We are assuming that the general tools of the Global Village Construction set are available, so that one can basically provide all infrastructure needs. We assume especially that with a flexible Fab Lab at low cost, and a repository of open source designs, we will be able to create anything. With the OSE-Assisted Cost, we are talking about students, or Fellows, which we invite to our facility for the explicit purpose of learning to be independent entrepreneur land stewards. As such, we are interested in sharing our resources to make replication of our facility feasible. This includes at-cost leasing of equipment and propagation of our genetic stocks, on top of the immersion experience that we will offer.

One major enabling feature of our aims is simplification without reduction of quality. By simplification, we mean particularly in the way to produce the items of interest. If production of some items takes a long time, that is a waste of life's precious hours, and is a good start of enslavement to the technology. This is precisely the reason why we want to design optimized fabrication procedures, and use any means necessary to achieve this - such as digital fabrication - without leaving the realm of appropriate technology. That is a great challenge that Lewis Mumford172 - the great critic of inappropriate technics - would readily endorse. A good counterexample is the Ronja project,173 where one can fabricate an open source wireless bridge, at reasonable materials cost ($100) but with 70+ hours of labor. Even at minimum wage, that brings total cost to $450+. We are suggesting that various facilitation mechanisms should be put in place in open source process to facilitate replication - such as availability of complete part kits, prepared components, hands-on workshops, or many others. These services also constitute business opportunities at the interface of information work and physical production, and are fuel for a radically different economic process.

We are not discrediting Ronja here, but pointing out the importance of alternative facilitative mechanisms. These are critical if one is shifting away from mass production. Moreover, it should be emphasized that the bulk of OSE's work lies in developing these mechanisms, to make active Global Village creation an easier - and perhaps even mainstreamable - choice.

b. ONGOING COSTS

It is also important to mention the ongoing yearly maintenance costs for managing a land-based facility of 12 people, minus its fabrication capacity. Here are some of the main costs:

Item
Cost
Open Source Cost
Chainsaw
100
100
Living space, 1000 sq ft
100
100
Skid loader/tractor
3000
100
Car174
3000
100
Rototiller175
100
20
Grid-tie inverter, 10 kW
100
10
Battery bank, 20 kWhr
200
0
Battery charger
50
0
Vehicle fuels
3000
0
Cooking gas
1000
0
Food
12000
0
Interest
10000
100
TOTAL
$37,550
$530

Table 5. Ongoing maintenance costs for a living-working Global Village.

The main costs are food, equipment maintenance, fuels, and interest. We are assuming that the 'standard' route of operation is to buy, not grow, your food. Tractors and cars take about $3k/year in maintenance costs. Vehicle fuels are also significant, depending on one's travel distances. Housing costs are negligible in both cases, as both scenarios have access to a sawmill for lumber and brick from the CEB press. In the open source cost, we should virtually eliminate vehicle costs, if we are fabricating our own parts. We will be producing fuel alcohol or algae fuel, as well as cooking gas, once our facility is up to full performance. We may safely add $10k in 5% debt service to the standard cost scenario, as people typically take out loans to cover capitalization expenses on the order of $236k.

f. TIME FRAMES

The replication time for a facility is 2 years, if we start with 2 individuals of above-average abilities and a deep interest in pursuing a program of right-livelihood Global Village creation. We propose 2 individuals as a nucleus from which a whole community can grow. The table below shows the proposed timeframe within which projects may be completed. Note that this time is based on the availability of the full infrastructure of a seed facility, including all the open source know-how and optimized production facilities. The times shown are a double of what we predict it would take for a skilled person, since the Fellow-in-training will not be able to complete projects effectively the first time in a learning process:

Item
Time
CEB press
1 week
Mobile Sawmill
1 week
Renewable energy system, 4 kW
4 weeks176
Living space, 1000 sq ft
4 weeks
Workshop and storage, 2000 sq ft
4 weeks
Advanced greenhouse, 1000 sq ft
4 weeks
Plastic extruder
1 week
Skid loader/tractor
2 weeks
Car
2 weeks
Edible Landscaping
1 week
Spader
2 week
Rototiller
2 week
CNC machine shop
2 weeks
XYZ table
1 week
Metal casting equipment
1 week
Power inverter, grid tie, 10 kW
1 week
Battery charger
2 days
Electronics fabrication
1 day
Well drilling
4 weeks
Vehicle fuels
1 week yearly
Cooking gas
2 days yearly
Animal husbandry - fencing
1 week
TOTAL
40 weeks

Table 6. Time requirements for immersion learning and production for replication.

A total of 40 weeks - of which 16 are 2 person operations - for a total of 56 weeks, or a little over a man-year, is sufficient to produce all the hardware for living, working, and thriving, including self-sufficiency in food, energy, housing, water, technology production, and self-employment abilities. It includes lifetime cars and tractors, ability to produce all necessary building materials, and the most advanced agricultural equipment.

The above man-year involves only about 24 man-weeks in direct preparation and fabrication (at Factor e Farm) for a future facility, where the rest of the facility building and well-drilling occurs at the new site. This means only about 6 man-months are required in direct fabrication duties. If we are talking about a couple taking on this program, then only 1/8 of the immersion program of 2 years is spent, per person, directly on fabrication/replication duties. The rest may be stent in theoretical preparation, book learning, earning, or other associated endeavors. In other words, replication is feasible as a result of a 2-year immersion program, and made even more fun when engaged as a couple on a path to freedom.

This program eliminates the carrot-on-a-stick driver of most peoples' typical American dream: a dream house, car, and a full belly.177 Costs of a house, car, utilities, food and fuel - are literally eliminated when one has generative building equipment, an ability to fabricate, and an ability to dig in the dirt. Recall that personal fabrication carries a promise of being easy, if design files for Fab Lab operations are readily available, and other aforementioned facilitation mechanisms are in place. Then the only skills required are assembly178(bolting, fastening, welding, etc.), digging in the dirt, playing with computers, and other tasks as needed. We should recall from Table 4 that the capitalization requirement for this adventure is under $25k. In other words, one can buy out at the bottom for less than $25k in this proposition. The catch is that one would have to have land, but dirt cheap land still exists,179 and we aim to work with Fellows on land acquisition via earnings. We propose this program as an alternative to a crap job till 55 and retirement. We are interested in fostering peoples' creativity by liberation from the necessity to make a living.

In summary - it's $25k, minus on-site earnings, plus 2 years in time - and you can buy out at the bottom. The rest is under your control.

Proposal 2008 Facility Replication - Revision history

Syk0 saje at 13:21, 25 May 2011

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