MMM Classics Year 10: MMM #s 91-100 - Moon Society

Potluck customizing
A machine producing a product can be shut down,
retooled or given a setup change, and then come back up
producing a somewhat different product. Until recently, the
U.S. norm for setup changes across a broad range of industries
was some 9 hours of downtime. The Japanese manage to cut
the average setup downtime to mere minutes. There is no
reason why a given piece of equipment cannot be tooled to
produce a kaleidoscopic variety using a finite number of
styling elements coming into play in diverse combinations.
These might be programmed by computer, the changeout
taking negligible time, with successive production runs of
differently styled products (a radio chassis, a print pattern on a
fabric, a handle design on a knife, etc.)
Or the diverse style elements can be preprogrammed
to come into play in random combinations, one after the other
(as lottery numbers are now stamped on the inside bottom of
soda cans for example) Such “kaleidoscopic variegated product
machines” could cheaply supply a significant range of individually
distinctive items even for small markets. The variegation
in each case would be confined to a set and recognizable
“family character” range (given available styling elements,
materials, colorants, etc.) within domestically supportable
resource and feedstock limits without regard for the size of the
domestic market. It may be possible to keep track by computer
of the kaleidoscopic formula or setting for each individual
piece so that patterns could effectively be saved to reproduce
on request designs meeting special customer favor.
Finishing by individual artists and craftsmen
It is also possible to produce generic “unfinished”
items, that can then be purchased by artists and craftsmen to
finish and resell. Or an unfinished item can be purchased by the
consumer and then given to an artist or craftsman of choice to
be finished according to special request on commission.
While this is a slower, more labor-intensive method of
introducing custom variety (than by way of the kaleidoscope
machine), the results may (no guarantee) produce more artistically
pleasing results, and the only way of producing nonrandom
designs. Those who especially appreciate the handcrafted
and individually designed product may be willing to
pay the extra price. But whence the artists and craftsmen?
Almost everyone will have a daytime job producing
something essential for domestic or export markets, and for
some time the bulk of art and craft may be executed in after
hours spare time cottage industry style. Nonetheless, the
demand may be so great that this need for variety in modern
history’s smallest market may well serve to usher in a “Golden
Age” for artists and craftsmen quite without precedent.
We should also see the rise of an unprecedented
number of amateur “do-it-yourself” artists and craftsmen
principally finishing consumer goods for themselves, and
perhaps as gifts for family and other loved ones. To serve this
need, various unfinished product lines could be marketed with
finishing kits, samples, suggestions, and useful tips. The
enterprising factory might even have an area where customers
can bring in their purchases to finish in factory supplied
facilities using factory supplied materials and tools. This will
be an especially economical and popular choice.
Domestic product lines it may become popular to
customize are dishes (tableware), ceramic planters, furniture
items, clothing items and ensembles, bed linens (in a factory
furnished dying facility) and the like. Personalization and
custom expression areas outside the home may include product
lines that can be customized for entryways opening on pressurized
streets, surface shield-roofs, and vehicles.
The subject of customizable “issue” furniture was
discussed in MMM # 77 [reference above].
The multi-community lunar world
Once an initial lunar settlement is followed by a
second, a third, and more of whatever size, their mutual isolation
will inevitably lead to diverse paths being taken along all
sorts of lines. Each having its own discrete mini-biosphere, the
choices of climate, farm crop mix, and complimentary flora
and fauna could be different. One of the results in addition to
the obvious one of distinctive ambiances, might be different
organic feedstocks to use in decorating clothing and artifacts.
But more basic than that will be differences in the
suites of available inorganic materials. For the primary reason
for establishment of additional outposts, at least early on, will
be to exploit diversely endowed natural local environments.
Thus a highland settlement will inevitably produce differently
designed and styled goods from a mid-mare or coastal settlement
to give one obvious example. While raw materials will
certainly be traded among settlements, it would be natural for
local artists and craftsman to rely primarily on locally available
materials. Trade between settlements then will be as brisk in
value-added artist and craftsman finished goods of locally
distinctive flavor as it may be in raw materials.
Imports from other off planet communities
As strategically critical materials may well be cheaper
to supply from other off-planet sources like the asteroids, Mars,
and its moonlets, it will likely be a prime directive of any lunar
settlement to support the opening of other off-planet outposts
and markets in any way possible. Such a policy will also produce
a stronger interdependent off-planet economy all the less
vulnerable to interruptions of support from Earth. As these
other markets develop, they too may be producing consumer
goods which will be a cheaper source of variety than items
from out of Earth’s deeper gravity well.
Stowaway imports from Earth
While items imported from Earth either on speculation
or by special order will be prohibitively expensive, there
are other ways of getting Made-on-Earth wears and wares to
the space frontier settlements. (a) Clothing worn by arrivals,
whether new settler recruits, official visitors, or tourists: such
items can be traded duty free for Made-on-Luna wears, and
then made available for specialty shop resale, or for playhouse
(actors’ ) wardrobes etc. (b) Settler immigrants might be
allowed a certain token heirloom weight allowance. Such
items, of diverse individually chosen sort, will remain in settler
homes for the most part, but eventually end up on the market or
in museums. (c) A subsidy for the import of art/craft tools (not
materials) might be a good investment for all. (d) Earth-Moon
ferries could conceivably be Earth-outfitted for the outbound
journey, Moon-outfitted for the return, the Earth-made items
finding their way onto the lunar market.
Moon Miners’ Manifesto Classics - Year 10 - Republished January 2006 - Page 65