The tractor of Marcin Jakubowski It broke down for the umpteenth time. It's 2003, rural Missouri, and he's just spent his last penny calling a technician from John Deere, the manufacturer. Which will take days to arrive. Maybe weeks. Can the harvest wait? NoCan the bank account handle another repair? neitherMarcin looks at the tractor sitting in the field and understands one simple thing: if you can't fix what you own, you don't really own it. So he decides to build one himself. And to give the plans to the whole world. Today, that tractor, modular and efficient, costs $12.000 instead of $120.000. And it's part of a set of 50 essential machines that could rebuild a civilization from scratch. Open source. Modifiable. Repairable. And truly yours.
The physicist who wanted to fix the world
Marcin Jakubowski was born in Slupca, Poland, and moved to the United States as a child. He graduated from Princeton with honors and received his PhD in fusion physics from theUniversity of WisconsinDream resume. Promising career. Yet, the further she got in school, the more useless she felt. His research was brilliant, but light years away from the real problems of the world. So, in 2003, just after finishing his doctorate, he made a choice that seemed crazy to his colleagues: he bought some land in Missouri and decided to become a farmer.
The idea was simple: to demonstrate that sustainable abundance is possible. That with the right technology, anyone can be self-sufficient. But his tractor broke down after a few months. And that's where it all began. John Deere, a global agricultural machinery giant, doesn't allow farmers to repair their own tractors. Every time something breaks, you have to call an authorized technician. They can take weeks to arrive, and they charge ridiculous prices even for trivial repairs. According to estimatesAmerican farmers pay $1,2 billion a year in repair costs and lose another $3 billion when their tractors break down.
Jakubowski understood that the problem wasn't technical. It was political. The problem was that today Machines own farmers, not the other way around. So he made a decision: build the tractor himself and publish all the plans online. For free. Without patents, without proprietary licenses, without restrictions. And it was born. Open Source Ecology, a collective of engineers, builders and makers developing what they call the Global Village Construction SetWhat is it? It's a civilization's survival kit. I'll rephrase: it's a set of 50 essential machines for building a small modern civilization from scratch.
The 50 essential machines that change the rules
Il Global Village Construction Set It's not a theoretical experiment. It's a working catalog of essential machines that anyone can build with recycled materials and standard components. Each project is documented in minute detail: technical diagrams, lists of materials, assembly instructions, test protocols. Everything is available free of charge on the Open Source Ecology website.
Here are some of the essential machines already developed and tested:
- LifeTrac, the modular tractor I was telling you about before;
- Power Cube, a self-contained hydraulic unit that can power any machine;
- CEB Press (also called “The Liberator”), the compressed earth brick press;
- MicroHouse, a $40.000 modular home complete with biodigester and geothermal system;
- 3D printer open source for component manufacturing;
- CNC Torch Table, numerically controlled cutting table;
- Induction generator for energy production;
- Sega for wood processing;
- Industrial oven for baking;
- Circuit maker, to create electronic circuits;
- Soil pulverizer for agricultural preparation;
- Hydraulic excavator for earthmoving;
- Industrial welding machine;
- Metallurgical lathe;
- Wind turbine for renewable energy.
And this is only a third of the catalog. The complete list of the 50 essential machines, with development status and technical documentation, is available on official portal of the project.
Jakubowski compares the system to Lego bricks: each machine can be dismantled and reconfigured for different purposes. Power Cube, for example, can power a brick press, a saw, a car, or a CNC milling machine.
Appropriate technology is not nostalgia
Jakubowski calls his approach “appropriate technology.” The concept comes from Gandhi's philosophy of swadeshi (self-sufficiency) and of the sarvodaya (elevation of all), popularized by the economist Ernst Friedrich Schumacher in the book Small is beautiful.
The idea is simple: technology must be designed for the specific context in which it will be used. It must be buildable with local materials, repairable by the local community, and scalable to local needs.
This isn't an anti-technology argument. It's quite the opposite. Jakubowski doesn't want to return to the Stone Age; he wants advanced technology to be accessible to everyone. The problem with globalized production chains is that they make everything dependent on proprietary components manufactured in seven different countries. If a part breaks, you have to wait weeks for delivery. And hope the manufacturing company still exists in twenty years.
The essential machines of the GVCS They use standard components available at any hardware store. Screws, bolts, hydraulic hoses, electric motors. No proprietary parts, no encrypted chips, no software that blocks repairs. If you have a wrench, you have a tractor., says Jakubowski's manual. And it's literally true.
The repair monopoly must collapse
The problem Jakubowski addressed in 2003 has exploded in recent years. John Deere continues to ban farmers to repair your own tractors (except in Colorado, where a state law guaranteed the right to repair in 2023). Repairing your tractor yourself voids any warranty, just like jailbreaking your iPhone.
But the “resistance” is organizing. In the United States, there are class actions involving hundreds of farmers. In Europe, 27 Community regulations legally frame the right to repair for agricultural machinery. Hackers as Sick Codes They've developed methods to unlock John Deere tractors directly from the touchscreen. A black market of cracked software, often sourced from Ukraine, allows farmers to circumvent manufacturer-imposed restrictions.
Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue, he told MIT Technology Review How a century ago, John Deere was famous for making its plows easily dismantled and repairable. "They attracted loyal customers because they once took care of farmers," Brand said. "But they've completely reversed that." What was once a competitive advantage has become a harassing business model.
From France to Belize, essential machines are working
Since 2008, when Jakubowski published the first projects, more than 110 basic machines were built by enthusiasts in Chile, Nicaragua, Guatemala, China, India, Italy, Türkiye, France. The most popular machine is The Liberator, the compressed earth brick press. In 2018, Aurélien Bielsa He used a replica of the press to build a house for his family in a small village in the south of France. In 2020, a group of volunteers helped a community member Open Source Ecology to build a tiny house using pressed bricks in a fishing village in northern Belize.
James Slate, a Texan with no engineering experience, downloaded the brick press blueprints, built it himself, and started a business selling the bricks. "I took some mechanics courses in high school. I come mainly from the IT world," he said in an interview with Open Source Ecology.
“Virtually anyone can build one if they put their mind to it.”
Andrew Spina spent five years building versions of the tractor GVCS and Power Cube. "I'm building my tractor because I want to understand it and be able to maintain it," he wrote on his blog. Machining IndependenceTransparency is fundamental to the open source philosophy precisely because it helps us become self-sufficient. The more we delegate to proprietary technology, the less we understand how things work. And the more dependent we become on that same proprietary technology.
The academy for future builders of essential machines
Jakubowski understood that the spread of open source hardware depends on collective expertise. Without a community that knows how to work with its hands, the organic innovation promised by the open source approach struggles to take off. That's why, at the beginning of 2025, he announced the Future Builders Academy, an apprenticeship program where participants learn all the skills needed to develop and build the Seed Eco Homes, self-sufficient modular homes that represent his latest venture.
Le Seed Eco Homes They cost around $40.000, can be built in five days, and are completely energy independent thanks to a biodigester, thermal battery, geothermal cooling system, and solar electricity. Jakubowski himself has lived in one of these houses since 2020. Eight more have been built, in addition to his own. The structure combines parts of the GVCS and embodies its modular philosophy.
“Housing is the single largest cost in a person’s life, and the key to so much else,” Jakubowski says.
The ultimate goal of Open Source Ecology It is a "zero marginal cost" society, where producing an additional unit of a good or service costs little or nothing. Jakubowski's interpretation of the concept (popularized by the economist Jeremy Rifkin) assumes that by eliminating proprietary licenses, decentralizing production, and fostering collaboration through education, we can develop truly equitable technology that allows us to be self-sufficient.
The lesson that changes everything
"We are becoming gods with technology. Yet technology has seriously disappointed us. We have seen great progress with civilization. But how free are people today compared to the past?"
Warning against our dependence on the proprietary technology we use every day, Jakubowski offers a new approach: progress shouldn't just mean achieving technological breakthroughs, but also making everyday technology equitable. "We don't need more technology," he says. "We just need to work with what we have now."
Open source hardware isn't just about helping farmers build their own tractors. In Jakubowski's vision, it's a complete reorientation of our relationship with technology. As we said when talking about 3D printers, personal manufacturing technology is becoming increasingly accessible. But technical accessibility isn't enough. A cultural shift is needed.
Who really owns the tools we use every day? Who decides whether we can repair, modify, or improve them? Jakubowski's 50 Essential Machines are a political response to an economic problem.
And maybe, just maybe, the first brick of a different economy.
