SELF SUSTAINMENT SYSTEM

Abstract

The "Self Sustainment System" (S.S.S. in short) is the official production system advocated by Project Autopia.
An S.S.S. is defined as any collection of devices specifically designed in order to be able, as a whole, to grant their owner the ability to obtain anything he could possibly need to live entirely by himself, with no reliance on external resources, and for an indefinitely long period of time.

Composition

A complete S.S.S should be composed by:
- a certain number of production devices
- a certain number of recycling devices
- an autonomous energy generating device
There is no fixed number of devices of which a complete S.S.S. should be composed; the fundamental rule is that, for every possible need, there shall be a device able to produce it, and a device able to return its scraps to the raw materials it was produced from; in addition, there shall be an energy generating device to keep them all in operation.

simplified scheme of an S.S.S.

S.S.S. Kernel

Since the S.S.S. is designed to work for an indefinitely long period of time, it needs to deal with the inevitable degradation or accidental damaging of its own components, by replacing them with new ones. For this reason, a sub-set of production devices shall be designed with the purpose of producing more S.S.S. devices including themselves (in other words, the S.S.S. shall be self-replicable); this sub-set is called the "Kernel" of the S.S.S..
Since the degradation/damaging might happen to the Kernel components themselves, any S.S.S. should have at least 2 copies of its Kernel, so that each one of them can be promptly replaced by the other.

scheme of an S.S.S., showing the function of the Kernel

Operation

Any S.S.S. operates through a cycle articulated in 3 phases:
1) Any good is entirely produced by its future consumer through the specifically designed production devices owned by him
2) The goods are consumed by their producer, which turns them into trash
3) Through specifically designed recycling devices, any generated waste is turned by the owner into the same raw materials from which the respective good was produced
The only exception to this rule is energy, which because of physical reasons (2nd law of thermodynamics) cannot be entirely recycled; however, it can still be produced by autonomous means in accordance to the self-sufficiency principles of Project Autopia.

a more in-depth illustration of how an S.S.S works

Guidelines

In order to work as intended, an S.S.S. should be designed according to the following requirements (in order of importance):

Omni-comprehensiveness

An S.S.S. must be able to satisfy any possible human need: for each possible human need, there must be a device able to satisfy it. For this purpose, each device should be designed in order to be able to serve as many purposes as possible.

Efficiency

An S.S.S. must have an output rate high enough to completely satisfy the daily requirement of its user; this is especially important in the case of biological needs (like water, food, etc.).

User-control

An S.S.S. and its component devices must be designed in order to grant their user the complete control over it.

Inter-mutuality

Each device must be designed not as a stand-alone, but rather as a complement to its reciprocal ones (i.e.: production devices to recycling devices, and vice-versa): it must be designed in order to be able to entirely process the output of its reciprocal ones, while simultaneosly produce an output that can be entirely processed by them.

Inter-replicability

An S.S.S. must be able to produce perfect copies of itself: there must always be a subset of devices able to replicate every S.S.S. device in its entirety, including themselves. For this purpose, a proper S.S.S. should always have at least 2 copies of each device belonging to said subset, so that the accidental breakdown of a device doesn't compromise the whole system.

Portability

Each device must be designed so that it can be carried around as easily as possible.

Automation

Each device must be able to work requiring the least possible amount of human intervention.

Customizeability

Each device must be able to allow the highest possible degree of personalization in terms of what it does and how it operates.

User-friendliness

Each device must be designed in order to be as easy as possible to use.

Extension

S.S.S.s are divided in various classes based on the scope of their products's use, and the consequent amount of people for which they're intended.

Domestic Class S.S.S.

Scope: any given house
Subject: the resident individual
The most fundamental class of S.S.S., on which all the other are based. Each one of them is owned by a single individual, and designed for his personal necessities (water, food, clothing, tools, furniture, etc.)

Urban Class S.S.S.

Scope: any given city
Subject: the city's community
Designed for public services (buildings, streets, public parks, etc.). Owned and managed by all the people of a single city.

Statal Class S.S.S.

Scope: any given nation
Subject: the nation's people
Designed for projects on national scale (highways, etc.). Owned and managed by all the people of a single nation.

Global Class S.S.S.

Scope: the entire planet
Subject: the whole mankind
Designed for projects on an international or global scale (world wide webs, etc.). Owned and managed by all the people on the planet.

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