One man, fifty machines and a bid to reboot civilisation

When Marcin Jakubowski’s tractor broke, the cost of getting it repaired made him angry. So he decided to build his own – and try to change the world in the process.

Born in Communist Poland in the early 1970s, Marcin was used to a level of scarcity. Everyday goods were rationed, choice was limited, and he waited in long queues with his mother during the weekly shop. All that changed in 1982 when his family moved to capitalist America where the shelves couldn't have looked more different – brimming with brightly-coloured goods of previously unimagined variety. But not everything was like he'd seen in the movies. Marcin saw scarcity there too, with people without money unable to buy what they needed to live. So he started to wonder: what would the world look like if everyone had the tools and freedom to support themselves?

To find out, he bought an old soy bean farm in Missouri and began a civilisation start-up experiment. It was predictably back-breaking work, that only got worse when his tractor broke down twice and he was unable to afford the $2000 repair bill. Angry at feeling so powerless, he resolved to design and build his own tractor, 'a box on wheels', that actually worked. Exhilarated, he shared his designs online for free hoping that if anyone else needed a tractor, they could build one too. From there, Marcin drew up what he calls his Global Village Construction Set – a Wikipedia-style list of the 50 most important machines of modern life – and encouraged people to collaborate on drawing up designs and publishing the blueprints for anyone to copy.

The idea really took off, leading to a TED talk and volunteers from around the world visiting Marcin's farm to help on the designs and construction. But the road to revolution hasn't always been smooth. Marcin reflects on how to make collaboration the norm and open source design mainstream, so that he can fulfil his vision of fewer people going without.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen
Producer: Anna Lacey

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