Tzadikim
29th January 2010, 10:10
I had posted (http://www.revleft.com/vb/three-dimensional-printing-t117264/index.html) about this idea previously, but it was quickly shot down. That said, I hadn't gone fully in-depth about it, so I'd like to develop it more fully and, as always, embrace constructive criticism.
I am presently unemployed and, capitalism being what it is, have very dim prospects for any sort of long-term employment for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, I do believe I have a way of furthering at least an alternative to capitalism, if on something of a smaller scale.
I intend, in the next several days, to register with a temp-service and find a job. Right now I needn't worry about any bills (I'm only twenty-one and still live at home, and my mother has a relatively steady job), so I am at liberty to save my money largely for whatever purpose I want.
And this is my purpose (http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome): to buy a pre-fabricated, self-replicating machine from the RepRap project. Now, I understand that these are simply tools, and not, in themselves, and at the present time, a total replacement for assemblyline manufacturing. But I do think that they offer hope for presently desperate communities subsisting on the fringes, and should at least be encouraged. Certainly they can be relied upon, to an extent, in the event of a partial or total collapse of the nation - which, at this point, I'm expecting - to preserve some modern amenities (like the ball bearing).
Now, depending on the price (I'm still very new to the desktop manufacturing community), it make take me a number of months to save up enough to purchase one. But save up I will, for as long as it takes, every penny of my paycheck. And, with that done, I intend to purchase the materials necessary for self-replicating and begin distributing them, free of charge and at my own expense, to both my friends and to the needy in my area, which there is a great many of.
From there, it's up in the air. I believe it would be a good deed done, and might be worth it in the future if things occur as I fear. More to the point, I hope that this invention, and others like it, will spur a new growth of class-consciousness in the people at large. At the very least - as a sort of "mandatory minimum" - such a project would help to inspire the necessary collaborate spirit that all Open Source projects require.
Now I do, of course, have a broader purpose in mind: I do not believe that we, as socialists, can presume to herit the mantle from the bourgeoisie until we have instilled systems and institutions which can take their stead, systems founded on a voluntary purpose and with the express intent of giving aid to the workers to rise up and claim society as their own. And, in fact, I think there are tools today which are conductive towards this end, but which we have not yet fully exploited - the Internet alone has, in a sense, "socialized" communication; Wikipedia, despite Jimmy Wales' political philosophy, would have been a socialist's dream a century ago. We need to blaze new trails in this direction. If, in the process, we are aided by the rhetoric which has for so long aided the bourgeosie - the rhetoric of individualism, of "self-sufficiency", and so forth - then all the better.
I am presently unemployed and, capitalism being what it is, have very dim prospects for any sort of long-term employment for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, I do believe I have a way of furthering at least an alternative to capitalism, if on something of a smaller scale.
I intend, in the next several days, to register with a temp-service and find a job. Right now I needn't worry about any bills (I'm only twenty-one and still live at home, and my mother has a relatively steady job), so I am at liberty to save my money largely for whatever purpose I want.
And this is my purpose (http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome): to buy a pre-fabricated, self-replicating machine from the RepRap project. Now, I understand that these are simply tools, and not, in themselves, and at the present time, a total replacement for assemblyline manufacturing. But I do think that they offer hope for presently desperate communities subsisting on the fringes, and should at least be encouraged. Certainly they can be relied upon, to an extent, in the event of a partial or total collapse of the nation - which, at this point, I'm expecting - to preserve some modern amenities (like the ball bearing).
Now, depending on the price (I'm still very new to the desktop manufacturing community), it make take me a number of months to save up enough to purchase one. But save up I will, for as long as it takes, every penny of my paycheck. And, with that done, I intend to purchase the materials necessary for self-replicating and begin distributing them, free of charge and at my own expense, to both my friends and to the needy in my area, which there is a great many of.
From there, it's up in the air. I believe it would be a good deed done, and might be worth it in the future if things occur as I fear. More to the point, I hope that this invention, and others like it, will spur a new growth of class-consciousness in the people at large. At the very least - as a sort of "mandatory minimum" - such a project would help to inspire the necessary collaborate spirit that all Open Source projects require.
Now I do, of course, have a broader purpose in mind: I do not believe that we, as socialists, can presume to herit the mantle from the bourgeoisie until we have instilled systems and institutions which can take their stead, systems founded on a voluntary purpose and with the express intent of giving aid to the workers to rise up and claim society as their own. And, in fact, I think there are tools today which are conductive towards this end, but which we have not yet fully exploited - the Internet alone has, in a sense, "socialized" communication; Wikipedia, despite Jimmy Wales' political philosophy, would have been a socialist's dream a century ago. We need to blaze new trails in this direction. If, in the process, we are aided by the rhetoric which has for so long aided the bourgeosie - the rhetoric of individualism, of "self-sufficiency", and so forth - then all the better.