The Trouble with Scaling Down

There's a problem I've noticed in a Capitalist economy.  The people who manufacture and distribute goods can only give the people what they want if they are capable of understanding it.  And one thing they can't seem to understand at all, is scaling things down.

Business leaders often must be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the things that revolutionize our way of life.

Personal Computers

A quick search for timelines of personal computer history, will show an impressive list of achievements by major computer companies.  But it is a load of garbage.  None of the timelines I've found mention the Altair, a kit produced in small numbers for hardcore experimenters.  No mention of the hundreds of hand built computers made by members of computer clubs all over the world.

The personal computer could have happened in the 60s, except that the computer companies had no interest in it.  They couldn't conceive of a reason why ordinary people would want to have a computer.  They were only interested in more powerful processing.  A smaller, cheaper, less powerful machine was ridiculous.  Until a bunch of home experimenters in the 70s forced them to see it differently.

3D Printing

The history of 3D printing is so similar to that of the personal computer, you would think they'd have it together this time.  But no.

3D printing technology has been around since the 80s, with outrageously expensive stereo-lithography machines.  Industry could only see this technology as rapid prototyping.  They couldn't understand how to make money with a slow manufacturing method, and couldn't believe that ordinary people would want these machines.

Once again, it took groups of individual experimenters, operating outside the economic system, to show what can be done with cheaper, slower, home built machines.  One group, the open source RepRap community, is focused on making 3D printers that can make 3D printers.  And they are getting closer to doing it, electronics and all.

The big players in the traditional economic world are racing to catch up, but they still have problems scaling down.  They now offer machines that cost under $2000, while smaller, geek-friendly operations will sell machines for as little as three hundred dollars - often made with 3D printed parts.

In thirty years, people will search the internet for a timeline of 3D printing, and will get a bunch of drivel about big corporate products, and no mention of the people who really made it happen.

What else?

You have to wonder what else we are missing out on, by relying on business.  With the constant merging of businesses, and the concentration of wealth into a smaller and smaller portion of the population, Capitalism is rapidly becoming a centralized planned economy.  And as such, there are just not enough brains on the case.  Or at least not in the marketing department, and that's what determines what we are allowed to have.

What kind of power generation could we have if as much research went into small scale power plants as massive power grid type plants?  If we ever have small scale hydroponic food systems, it will have more to do with the efforts of marijuana growers than anyone in the current food industry.

What kind of advances in housing, transportation, clothing and entertainment are we not getting because of the laser focus of attention on scaling things up instead of down?  Free markets and Capitalism are not necessarily the same thing.  Capitalism is the massing up of money to do big things, which makes it only see the big things.  Maybe we need to be massing up smaller amounts of money to do smaller things. 

This isn't a case of The Man trying to keep us down.  It's more like, The Man just isn't smart enough to do his job anymore.  If we start to see the current state of business as an obstruction, then we can route around it to get what we want.

Can you think of more examples of things that we had to build ourselves before the market caught up?  Or things you think we could have if we aimed a little lower sometimes?  Leave a comment.