Edge of Knowledge
Hint: Here we derive by one argument that Humanity's kernel of practical knowhow is estimated to be worth $50B based on the value of global product R&D over one patent cycle. Initially called Knowledge Kernel, this is perhaps better called Knowhow Kernel. This is achievable at the proverbial 1/10th a cup of coffee.
Contents
- 1 About
- 2 Meta
- 3 Aspects of the Edge of Knowledge
- 4 About
- 5 Approach
- 6 Teaching Challenge
- 7 Knowledge Kernel
- 8 Reality Check
- 9 Tehnology and Humanities - and Methods for designing the RLF
- 10 Knowledge Architecture
- 11 Exploration of RLF Learning Areas
- 12 Solar Steel
- 13 Gas Lab
- 14 3DP
- 15 Carpentry and Welding
- 16 Solar Concrete
- 17 Transistor Lab
- 18 Engine and Piston Lab
- 19 3DP
About
The edge of knowledge is simply the limits of human knowledge.
The point of this distinction is to raise awareness that the edge of knowledge is near, in the sense that any individual who goes deep into any pursuit of knowledge will quickly recognize that there are unanswered questions. In fact, an astute observer will realize that there are more unanswered questions than knowns - once the individual begins to probe further in breadth and depth. This questioning can be used to delve deeper into any concept, such as, 'is the earth flat' or 'how do you make a more efficient bearing' - and to complex questions, such as 'how to end class war.'
Meta
The most powerful gift that keeps giving is when one figures out their calling in life and pursues that without limits. Few people discover this. In advanced civilization, this should be the norm. One of OSE's goals is to notlemalize the funding of such mission by the time one reaches around 18-24 years of age. The OSE Apprenticeship is an adventure designed to make finding one's calling while one is embedded in a rapid learning environment where apprentices learn how to learn, learn how to think, and learn how to truly collaborate.
The exposure we aim for is to learn everything about everything and to build anything imaginable - with the only constant being meaningful engagement. Since this is impossible, we can aim for learning The Edge of Knowledge through a survey of all human enterprise, and to build just about anything by learning Universal Design. While the Universal Fabber is still a myth, we aim to take civilization closer to it.
Aspects of the Edge of Knowledge
OSE believes that we can study the edge of knowledge formally to attain increased understanding more rapidly, such that we form accurate mental models of reality. Such understanding is critical for human progress, and is at the core of the 'good old fight of good versus evil.'
The process for studying the edge of knowledge may include:
- Scope is every discipline (tech, society, and humanity)
- Learn the seminal thinkers (mostly dead people) who took the world to its current state across all discipline. The goal is to identify readily - the current state of thought in any discipline . This is a basis for knowing what is important in the world, and what is noise, from the perspective of moving humanity forward. This is under the assumption that we can make a better world, and any sentient being should think about this topic at least some of their time on this planet. This is called Time-binding.
- Learn a broad scope of practical knowhow in Rapid Learning Facilities, which also span every discipline.
- Educate oneself broadly, specializing in generalization - but if one can learn at least 10x more than by usual means - then one can indeed 'specialize' in 10 disciplines at the least, meaning one has become a renaissance-like generalist now capable of solving real global issues. This could cure The Best and the Brightest, while mixing class by leveling the playing field so that anyone from any background can remove former glass ceilings by virtue of Life-Work Integration.
About
- 1000 Hour Curriculum is the base promise of OSE to take anyone to the limit of human knowledge across all disciplines in 4 years by Integrated Learning
- Class room is not just a plain class room - but a lab with hands-on build, computer design + collab, virtual augment in lab, or school without walls. In fact, it is the Rapid Learning Facility of 24 to 50 bays at core. Think about how to apply RLF to other organizations outside of tech: definitely ag, but what about economics, governance, culture, spirituality, art, interior design, hardscape, waterscape, soil, rocks, wood, plastic, semiconductors, food, leadership, mind-body practice, business development etc. Extend RLF to all these sectors
- RLF is base for any sustainable community. Thus, rollout is RLF to housing + ag, to manufacturing, to village bank to R&D on Civilization Integration.. Access is controlled by transparent credentialing with continuing education. Start is Values (moral intelligence, no assholes) + learning How To Learn
- About $6M for 1000 Hour Curriculum dev. Essentially around 50 GVCS in cluster areas
- Basic specification is presented, technical writers and engineers are hired to produce understandable materials
- Getting is the ability to follow a specification or to help refine it
- Add 100% off-grid capacity to Savannah
- OSE Social Contract is Moral Intelligence, genius (learning how to learn), abundance, and open collaboration. We expose the genius in everyone - our 4 year program is for elites and the downtrodden willing to rise
- Curriculum is inserted into every Tech School, college, and University worldwide, starting with. Native American colleges.
- MJ is headmastér and teacher initially. Part of process is getting to the Edge of knowledge in all disciplines myself
- It is about building a community for swarm builds, Civilization Rebuilding, continuing development. Addresses The College Gap.
Approach
To reach the edge of knowledge and regenerate one's genius, our approach for each lesson in the 1000 hour curriculum is to study:
- History of the topic
- Broad patterns, principles, seminal work, and status quo of the area
- How the topic relates to all other areas of human endeavor
- How the topic has changed over time and space
- Points of possible improvement and transformation
- Integrated strategies that emerge based on all the prior items above
Teaching Challenge
Human knowledge has become so specialized that the top experts know very little about how their area relates to other disciplines, institutions, or sectors in in the world. Such fragmentation is a serious threat to the democratic process, because it is difficult for people to attain accurate mental models of reality. This leads to political manipulation, financial insecurity stemming from an unlevel playing field, a scarcity mindset stemming from under-appreciation of human and natural resources, and a general lack of autonomy self self-determination.
The current fragmented nature of human knowledge makes it difficult to find single instructors who can cover all the relevant topics in each of the thousand lessons. In particular, most experts know very little about topics other than their focus. Since OSE is pursuing integrated education, integrated design, and integrated enterprise - this can be solved by a survey approach in which a number of key instructors are brought in for the main topics in each area.
The bottleneck naturally becomes the curriculum integrators - who would need to have a lot of the relevant knowledge already when designing the curriculum. Because our scope is so comprehensive, this remains a daunting task. The key to success is defining a generic, skeletal curriculum structure - which can guide curriculum design - as a general pattern through each of the thousand lessons.
The resulting curriculum must allow both for sipping and gulping from a fire hose of knowledge, depending on one's prior education and experience. The curriculum must be of sufficient quality to allow both novices and experts to be able to benefit. Best practices of pedagogy must be used such that the learner can either skim or survey the material, or go in depth as far as needed to grasp seminal concepts.
If we claim that there are 8 [1] broad areas of human knowledge, see diagram. Since the full curriculum allows for thorough redesign of civilization, it follows that the curriculum must make all economic design and process transparent.
Knowledge Kernel
How much is all the underlying knowledge worth? Ie, how do we run government, educate people, make microchips, or split atoms? One (limited) way to calculate this is the difference in economic output between today and 19 years ago, the time for patents to run out. It may be said that the difference, adjusted for population growth, may be due to 'innovation'. Thus, this difference is the value of all economically significant knowledge - Value of Knowledge or VoK.
The notion above relies on the assumption that all knowledge older than 19 years is freely available. This is of course not true, as trade secrets are lost because they are not published openly, thus all past knowledge is effectively lost. There is a double dilemma: older knowledge is not available, and current 'best practice' is all proprietary. This is the unfortunate big picture of global knowhow, which implies a very uneven playing field because new economic players are effectively prevented from entering the playing field.
The VoK number must be lowered by the percentage that typical companies spend on R&D - or innovation. That percentage is only 1% - see R&D Budgets. There is also a large redundancy in the knowledge, ie - likely a number N = 10 companies or organizations work in each field of endeavor without sharing knowhow, without collaborating. Thus it can be said that the actual knowledge kernel is N = 10x smaller. N can be likened to 'reinventing the wheel factor'.
In summary: all increase of GDP worldwide over 19 years is assumed to be the result of 'new knowledge' (adjusted for population growth) - ie, this knowledge is assumed to be responsible for the increase in GDP (otherwise GDP would be the same if no innovation occurred, if discounted for population growth). Therefore, the cost of all this new knowledge (cost of all of civilization's knowledge) is:
Cost of Knowledge Kernel = KK = GDP growth in 19 years * R&D% / N
Cost to Open Up Education
Hint: The cost of the overall kernel of human global economic knowhow is defined as the Knowledge Kernel (KK) above
True education would mean adding economically significant knowledge to the typical theoretical curricula of colleges. The assumption here is that education produces economically significant knowhow. Currently, education systems are biased towards creating servo-mechanisms that perpetuate the status quo. However, we propose entrepreneurial, startup culture - which is a clear Affordance of a playing field in which access to economically-significant knowledge - with its attendant culture of transparency and collaboration - is open and is taught in universities. Unless this option is created, we are likely doomed to a permanent culture of scarcity.
Realistish Numbers
Let's attach real numbers to this transition.
The actual numbers for global GDP are 39T in 2003 and 105T in 2023 - about 65T increase. Population is not a great factor - 8/6.4 Billion => 25% increase. Thus population adjusted productivity increase is about 50 trillion. If there are nominally 10 companies worldwide per product, and R&D is 1%, then KK, the global knowledge kernel, costs $50B by the above discussion:
KK=$50T * 1% / 10 = $50B
Reality Check
Can all human knowhow cost only $50B if one fighter jet development program costs more than this?
Is this consistent with the fact that the F35 jet - by itself and out of many hundreds of other multibillion dollar programs that generate no shared value - costs $12B annually in R&D [2]? Yes. The explanation is that such programs simply do not contribute to essential productive value, but are instead one of the numerous costs of competitive waste. On one side, cost could be lowered at least 10x with open source, collaborative military R&D. And more fundamentally, it is worth investing in civilization redesign where such competitive waste is eliminated by design. Such a program is, however, more ambitious than the development of fighter jets and would take out-of-box initiative to execute.
Thus the cost to Open Up Education - so that every economic actor, company, or institution functions at their peak of knowhow - is roughly $50B, one time. This is the price of the combined USA cup of coffee per year, and less than 1/10th the cost of a cup of coffee the world over [3]. From the initial outlay, it is the goal that open culture perpetuates the creation of open knowhow. Furthermore, a significant multiplier effect comes into play once best practice is shared across industries. The possibility of a maker, entrepreneurial civilization enters, possibly shifting civilization to general financial independence and an end of consumerism and war.
Tehnology and Humanities - and Methods for designing the RLF
The rapid learning facility - RLF- is proposed as the core for rapid learning of productivity and humanity. Huh?
We can claim that there are two main areas of human endeavor: productivity (technology), and cultural advancement (integrated humans pursuing self-determination). While the initial RLF focuses on material abundance, it is not devoid of cultivating moral intelligence. It may be easiest to conceptualize an RLF for productivity, but if all of human endeavor including education, economics, politics, etc - are part of human-created technology - ie, the Technosphere - then it follows that we can treat the applied, hands-on, experiential learning of the humanities in an experimental, physical facility organized similarly to the RLF for physical artifacts.
The RLF would be thus most sensibly broken into physical manufacturing, and a rapid learning environment for the humanities and social studies and sciences. For human performance, a lab with various human diagnostics may be needed (EEG, brain-human interface, various sensors, x ray, etc). For Learning How To Learn, there may be a lab for AI development, various online resources, physical artifacts such as learning games. The distinction between learning environments for technology on one side and the humanities on the other would be blended: for example, learning productivity and tech could include physical exercises for hand-eye coordination or sensing of texture - such that experiential, sensory, intellectual, emotional, moral learning happens all at the same time. Anything less is specialization, which is for insects, not humans - especially those humans on a life journey to meet homo deus.
The immediate challenge is information overload - ie, the speed with which Neuroplasticity can occur. Part of our work would thus involve a study of how fast such learning can occur, and what factors affect this rate. Our initial guess is that an optimal blend of diet, exercise, sleep, mental hygiene, spiritual practice, moral intelligence learning, emotional intelligence learning, and intellectual intelligence learning will take a part, with nonlinear improvement occurring with added integration of these elements into the learning curriculum. That is - how is information overload or cognitive overload affected by other practices of being human - such that we optimize our life for learning, thriving, and evolving. This is a worthwhile question, and its pursuit must be a choice (agency) accessible to all classes and cultures within the human population.
Idea: break technology down First - Product-based - by areas of endeavor (for example construction may include 256 square feet of 17 trades learning with atomic experiments, and up to 2000 sf if solar concrete, steel, 3D printing/plastic recycling, lumber production, etc, are included. The facility would include $1M productivity increase per year (24 students trained and producing) - making materials, parts, and modules for the Seed Eco-Home. Direct connection to economic output is created. Second - by topic - such as go into all related technology in a focus group - such as solar steel that includes alloying, precision machining, boring, air bearings, steel recycling, solar energy as fuel, integration of wind turbine, WAAM, wire drawing, rolling, forging, etc. Or Third - micro or part level - where the entire section focuses on a small area such as bore: which means air bearing, pistons for engines, hydraulic pumps, compressors, high pressure pumps, vac pumps, electronics for timing and fuel injection, solenoids, injectors - etc - which means effectively an engine lab.
Principle: facility is used for both learning and production. Learning and physical goods are the products. Production appears to be overemphasized, but all we mean is that human needs must be met first, sustainably, and regeneratively - so that various global calamities such as resource conflicts, environmental destruction, or political corruption do not occur. The mental model is that individuals must act responsibly, as institutions can only help to make people behave responsibly, but are not a substitute for responsibility.
Knowledge Architecture
Knowledge architecture can be described in various forms:
- Mindmaps
- Modular breakdowns - such as 50 and 500 items, but must be a complete, degenerate set
- Knowledge structures in various fields - what are the key components of knowledge in each specific field. In each field, different topics or components will have higher importance.
- Zachman Ontology maps - for execution in each field
- RLF designs in each field - physical and knowledge infrastructures for learning a topic fast
- Integrated enterprise designs - highly integrated enterprises are and possible to implement, until they become possible
- Integrated production facility designs -infrastructures required for the production side of integrated enterprises
- Metamaps of all knowledge and knowhow
Exploration of RLF Learning Areas
- Tractor + RTK GPS Drones
- 3DP - roofless roof closures, rubber, plastic lumber, trim, landscaping block and geogrid
- Solar concrete - pottery kiln for 1 yard of cement batch. Trailer, PV, mobile windmill, mobile cement plant.
- Piston lab
- Independent cylinders, universal hydraulic drive
- Hydrogen freepiston engine
- Common rail + injectors
- Universal Rotor - reinventing the wheel
- 3D printed wheel rubber + tracks
- car and heavy machine wheels + drive
- Recyclable tires
- Pivots
- 360 deg turnstiles
- Space frame
- Roofless roof
- Telescoping
- Towers
- Buildings
- Scissor lifts
- Power cube
- 16 hp units
- Solar electric with Power Wall co-function
- Solar Hydrogen
- Electrolyzer
- Compressorless 35 bar
- Phase 1 has compression. Works with hydrogen engine
- House
- Power tool training
- Modules building. Feeds on Solar Concrete
- OSES
- Open Source Everything Store for Lifetime Design
Industrial version of RLF adds:
- Foundry
- Hot metal
- Industrial robot
- Precision machining outside of air bearings
- Combine:
- Wheat
- Fuel pellets
- Charcoal pellets
- Feed and Fertilizer - waste products, dehydrated offal
Renewable Energy Lab
- Space Frames from space frame bay - towers for windmill.
- Space frame VAWT blades hung on space frame disc, also space frame HAWT blades
- Compressed air at 2 ksi and 7 ksi
- Pelletizer
- Pallet charcoal maker
- Solar Hydrogen generator
- Atmospheric Water Generator - both powered and Google AWG
- Hydraulic engine from engine lab to burn hydrogen and charcoal
- Pallets to diesel converter
- Solar Cube with inverter - using your cordless bats for off-grid power, 1 kWhr
Modular Cell Phone
- Used as command and control for automation and vehicles, feed for AR glasses, machine control, etc. Multispectrum, multiprotocol
- Delivers aborted promise of Phonebloks
Solar Steel
- Solar steel batch
Gas Lab
- Make hydrogen, oxygen, argon shielding gas, nitrogen, carbon dioxide
- And store up to 10 ksi
3DP
- Shred
- Filament
- Rubber, tracks, belts, o-rings
- Glazing
- Space frame connectors
- Conduit, plumbing, plastic lumber, trim, siding, various mounting hardware.
Carpentry and Welding
- All wood tools
- All metal tools up to ironworker, welder, oxy hydrogen torch and welder
Solar Concrete
- Roofless Roof structure made in Space Frames Bay and 3D Printing Bay.
- Solar concrete batch - 50 lb bag made in a pottery kiln, 5 hrs [4].
- Micro-continuous - 6" pipe rotary kiln
Space Frames
- Disconnectable connector for large workshop structure
- Disconnectable linear connector for trailer
- Disconnectable connector for tractor frame
- Trailer
- Tractor frame
- Car frame
- Rotary kiln
- LWS with Roofless Roof
- Ramps for trailer
- Wheels
Open Source Everything Store Lab
- Scavenges all other bays, but primarily 3DP, microcontrollers, motors, batteries, and open design
- Machining center
- Product CAD
- Marketing
- On-damand manufacturing website dissemination - we produce, and set up others in enterprise with software and hardware on the OSE Linux stack.
Drones
- Multimedia
- RTK GPS
- Docking and charging on carriers
- Automated surveying
- CV
- AI
- Delivery vehicles
- Automated earthworking - foundation, site grading, trench, tree planting, ponds,
- Folow-me
- Swarming
- Drone networks for internet/comms
- Ham to 5.4 Ghz
Tool and Die Lab
- Tools, tool heads, gears, blades, bits, circular blades
Microcontroller and Sensor Lab
- Universal Prototyping Board for socketed design with lever terminals for production, lifetime design boards
Transistor Lab
- Transistoraler
Fab Lab
- Desktop Semiconductor Foundry for making microprocessors
- Logic design
- Tapeout - mask making
- VLSI tools to competitive marketable products, at least microcontroller or small computer
Air Bearings Lab
- R&D on non-oil engines, pumps, pistons bearings
Power Electronics Lab
- OS PNP with reusable components with reflux. Melt-and-shake gets the components back off for reuse. World's first ever reusable PNP components method
- Brain + power boards for welder, inverter, charger, charge controller, plasma cutter, ac controller, dV voltage controller, bldc driver, induction furnace, RF source, microwave gen, HVAC and other solid state transformers
- 1-100kW water and air cooled designs. 1kW power elements.
- Universal rapid Prototyping power element with 3D printed board, sockets, lever nuts, heat sink, fan
Engine and Piston Lab
- Pistons for air, water, hydraulics, explosions from low pressure to 50ksi up to water jet pumps
- Hyd cyl
- Air engine
- Hydraulic motor - precision grind and heat treat
- Blocks
- Sleeves
- Injectors and solenoid valves from 5 to 50000 psi
- Sprayer pump
- Compressor - to 10000 psi
Precision Machining and Automated Mfg Lab
- Space frame machining center
- Belt drive
- Chain drive
- Rotary encoder
- Linear encoder
- 3D print head
- Planetary gear - 3D printed
- Automated ZnAl mold caster
3DP
WAAM Lab
- Robotic welder
Robot Arm Lab
Space Frames
- Trailer
- Tractor frame
- Car frame
- Rotary kiln
- LWS with Roofless Roof
PV Lab
- 16*16' space
- Sand refining to 6" ingots at a rate of one 5' ingot per 24 hr for 10kW of PV per day
- Wire saw
- Silicon dioxide to silicon
- Zone refining
- Dope for half the semiconductor
- 10kW induction heater, runs on solar and wind from RE Bay