Proposal: Project Hephaestus

[Scam of God]

I will be coming into a deal of money within the next six months - I'm not entirely certain when, but it should be before August.

Using that money, I intend to purchase a self-assembling rapid prototyper from the RepRap project for my own personal experimentation. The machines are currently at a low level of development, but, owing to the unique OpenSource model the project has been using, tend to make quick advances.

I am willing to manufacture and distribute these for free, once the machine is in my possession, to whoever wants one, at my own expense. The only thing you'd need to install are the electronic components. If you're interested, contact me and I'll put you down for one.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I must say that I am deeply interested in this project. I also think it would make a good sci-fi plot.

[Scam of God]

I ask only one thing of anyone who agrees to receive one of these machines from me: that they make at least one themselves for someone else when they're familiar enough with it to do so. I can't force them to, but I think one good turn deserves another.

[Scam of God]

After a little reflection:

The best way to handle this would be, I think, structured somewhat along the lines of a pyramid scheme - I'll produce the first dozen or so, then everyone who receives a machine from me will be responsible to produce at least one for someone they know, obliging them to produce at least one, and so forth. That's a little vague, but it makes sense to me.

[Scam of God]

Bump.

[cannonia]

I'm definitely interested.

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

So you are sending these things out for free?

[Scam of God]

So you are sending these things out for free?

Once I have the machine itself, I'm going to determine how many units I can manufacture myself for how much in materials costs. Depending on how that goes (I'll probably have about a thousand to blow this summer, and nothing to blow it on but this; pre-manufactured, each unit costs ~$500, but that price drops massively for each subsequent unit manufactured), I'm going to make a handful for my immediate relations and then dole them out on an as-can-afford basis. After that, who knows? I'd like to think that everyone who gets one will then make one for at least one person they know, and the cycle will continue ala Pay It Forward, though I'm not nearly so confident that will actually be the case.

To be fair, they're not completely self-replicable -- they must be hand-assembled, and certain of the parts must be purchased - it's about 50% complete at the present, and still in the development phase. But I don't know that I want to wait for it to be finished. As I've said, however, I'll buy the rests of the parts needed and send them out for free, but the recipient may need to provide and install the electronics for himself and purchase materials for future manufacture.

So it looks like I'll have two projects to busy myself with this summer. I'm an ambitious little asshole.

[Mechaman]

I'll have to think about this.
Truth is I think this is genius, but I'll have to see what my financial status is around the time you think you'll be ordering them first (Cause you know I have to buy electronic components, have to have a decent computer (and not this crappy mac laptop where I have to email all of my papers to my roomates computer just so I can print them off)). But yeah, if I'm set I'll be more than willing to try this.