Applied Critical Theory

Introduction

Critical Theory is a different way of looking at the scarcity mindset - the underlying theme that OSE is negotiating for a solution. Both transhumanists and odd moustached men also negotiate scarcity thinking - the former for a technical solution but not a technological (societal) one, and the latter by genocide.

Here we apply Critical Theory to details of various productive segments of civilization, starting with construction.

Based on Critical Theory, A comfortable, smooth, reasonable, democratic unfreedom prevails in advanced industrial civilization, a token of technical progress. - Marcuse. Further- The social reality in advanced industrial societies is that very sophisticated systems of domination are in place and they are capable of transforming themselves to meet the challenge of any movement for liberation. Ie, in a world of absolute abundance, the myth of scarcity prevails. Here we make observations, towards eradicating such artificial scarcity. The point is to be taken: the mechanisms for scarcity are subtle. Scarcity = unfreedom. Here we explore some of these subtleties.

Lifetime Design

Perhaps the single most important aspect of critical theory - the thing that takes away freedom - is lifetime design - or more precisely the lack of it modern society. Throwaway goods from China are the norm. Proprietary designs make service impossible. Open design and parts are not readily accessible. Cloned fruit plants and terminator seeds do not replicate naturally. Companies are not Built to Last. Design for obsolescence result in tons of cell phone junk. You buy a house, and 20 years later you need to do significant repair and continuous maintenance. Think about the car junkyard: a small part goes out on a mostly functional car, and it ends up at the junk yard as parts are generally not interchangeable. Just think about it: you buy something, then you have to buy it again 6 months later on Amazon. Or you buy a tractor, and have to buy a new one 10 years later. Think about how much waste that introduces: that means that you need to keep pumping the treadmill just to survive, instead of thriving in more built-to-last environments.

Imagine instead that products improve in time, as you can modify and upgrade their modular design. Or houses that last a minimum of 100 years without you having to do any maintenance prior to that period. Think Design Degeneracy. This is an obvious but critical aspect of modern civilization that drives cost up 10x at least, and we as humanity have not yet fixed it. There is a lot of interest in maintaining this situation from certain partisans, but this is not a collaborative relationship because in general it is a win-lose situation - not a win-win situation. This needs renegotiation on the societal scale.

Modernist Myth

That means that we already know everything because science told us so and therefore we really have nothing new to invent. This is typical of the attitude in society where we think that the way the world is is predetermined and already optimized because scientists and engineers invented it.

Competition for Your Wallet and Education

Given that manufacturers have vested interest in their own products, this is a counterincentive to standardization, best practice. And education. Best practice - because each does not share their best practice. Sharing means sharing economically-siginficant information - stuff that works as the economic engine of society, not Instructables or this wiki lol. Standards - no, because if things are standard, this is an un-incentive towards 'competitive edge.' Education: when each company promotes their product, they are probably not promoting the cheaper solution, which obtains from deeper understanding and higher sophistication technically and personally. A better and more affordable solution is a more fundamental solution that relies on more understanding: one that comes from true understanding. And, true understanding means that you share and give away for free, as then you are a true master and your value comes from the respect you command. So in short, only inferior producers hold on to their secrets, they dumb you down by not producing essential information, and they keep a general low performance by lack of standards. Since education = mainstream economics, that means that your education is secrets that you don't learn, just like the industrial patents.

This means that school is harder than it should be. As you never get the juicy secrets that will make wealth and prosperity. Because everyone holds on to their secrets if they are any good.

Solution: open source tech and thus learning. Differentiation then becomes: how much you care for your customer.

Corollary: forget about solving education until the world starts to do open source design: integrated design, Integrated Enterprise, open source economy. Then education can start.

This may be worse than it sounds, because nobody is aware of this and behaves without addressing this issue at the core -and thus this issue hurts society.

Construction

• Architects defend the agency of tradespeople by not producing detailed design documents, nor digital automated design-build protocols, which would incidentally eliminate both the architect and specialized tradesperson from the equation. The subtlety in this is that not producing detailed design (ie, supporting a disintegrated design-build process where people figure things out on the fly) drives labor costs up by a factor of - not only 2 or so - but 5 according to our build data. See Comparison of OSE Build Costs to Industry Standards and the data link in the Links section.

Patents+

Patents and trade secrets are the ultimate enforcer of mediocrity: while one company profits, most others remain mediocre. Eradication of patents could create the Zero Marginal Cost Society even for physical goods.

Thugs

There exists organized crime which involves a mechanism of violence for securing a livelihood. Russian kleptocrats, drug lords, military juntas, and mafias fall into this category. Very pernicious it is when such governance is written into the legal system, such as in Russia. Yet subtle hegemony of more sophisticated systems (like Marcuse talks about) - that are widely accepted as legal - has perhaps a much greater negative effect on society. Corruption is only a few percent of the global economy - 5% of global GDP according to the UN [1]. The part that is the status quo is the vast majority, constituting grand larceny of global proportion which goes on without anyone noticing.