Better Worlds I:

Seed Factories and Self-Improving Systems

This is the first volume of a two-volume set about building a better life for ourselves, our community, and the world. Building is meant in both the literal sense of construction and production, and in the social sense of how people work together to reach our goals. The core ideas behind our approach can be summarized as follows:

Resources and energy are abundant on Earth and in space.
With enough knowledge and tools they can be used to build a better life.
With planning this can be sustainable with minimal side effects.
Cooperation makes it affordable. Exponential self-improvement makes it scalable.
Smart tools can do most of the work and make it easier.

Engineers define systems for purposes like understanding, analysis, design, and improvement. They can include people, and any other kind of entity, like buildings, hardware and software. Systems have characteristics of interest, such as quality of life, size, emissions, and output rate. Their change in a desired direction is considered an improvement. Self-improvement is when the change comes from internal action of the system. It has occurred throughout history in many ways, such the as evolution of life, or the development of civilization. In the past these changes have often been unplanned rather than on purpose.

This volume covers self-improving systems generally, and a particular type called a Seed Factory. It is a starter set of equipment intended for growth and self-improvement. It does this by a repeating process, where each upgrade enables further upgrades. This has the potential for exponential growth, where one starter set can become as large or as many as needed. There are many uses for seed factories, and more generally for systems that are designed for self-improvement.

We start with the history of the idea, then elements of design, and a design process. We then present several examples to show how self-improving systems and seed factories can be used. Volume II on Space Systems first explores the very different conditions and locations in space, then presents additional projects and examples that can use similar nethods of improvement, expansion, and making copies to reach their goals

Better Worlds I:

Table of Contents

Preface

1.0: Introduction

2.0: History and Concept Development

3.0: Design Elements

4.0: Design Process

5.0: Personal Production

6.0: The MakerNet

7.0: Industrial Production

8.0: Remote and Difficult Locations

9.0: Conceptual Design Notes