Marcin Jakubowski on Open Source Ecology: From Mud Hut to Singularity in 1 Day

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Some people are just outright unreasonable: they refuse to adapt to the world and, instead, try to adapt the world to themselves. Marcin Jakubowski is one of those crazy people who has been trying to open source a civilization starter kit from the ground up. Now, as we know, most unreasonable people fail. But those who make it through end up changing the world. And I sure hope Marcin is one of those. So I could not pass the opportunity to have him on Singularity 1on1 and talk about being unreasonable and the work that he does.

During our 1 hour discussion with Marcin Jakubowski we cover a variety of interesting topics such as: why he considers himself farmer-scientist and open source ecologist; scarcity, distribution and post-scarcity; the definition, mission and goals of open source ecology; the civilization starter kit of 50 irreplaceable machines; Richard Stallman’s free software vs the open source software movement; patents, innovation and Jaron Lanier’s criticism that open source lacks it; Catarina Mota’s PhD thesis on open source hardware; self-sufficiency and Marcin’s concept of “true freedom”; the size and cost of his open source eco houses; Jakubowski’s current crowdfunding campaign together with the Open Building Institute…

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Who is Marcin Jakubowski?

Marcin Jakubowski is a Polish-American who came to the U.S. from Poland as a child. He graduated with honors from Princeton and earned his Ph.D. 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 of the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS)—an open source tool set of 50 industrial machines necessary to create a small civilization with modern comforts. His work has recently been recognized as a 2012 TED Senior Fellow, in Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2012, as a 2013 Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow, and a White House Champion of Change in 2013.