That's a cool idea, but it suffers from the same problem that OLPC suffers from[1]: it's a lot of dreams and not a lot of substance.

Looking at their Machine Index[2], there are 50 machines.

Some of these are obviously not "important machines that it takes for modern life to exist": a 3D Scanner[3], for example, is still an immature technology at best, and is ultimately useless without a computer, which isn't one of the machines (the same criticism applies to all their CNC machines). Similarly, the design for the car[4] is purely aesthetic without any concern for pragmatics--the exterior is covered in futuristic-looking curves that will make manufacturing more difficult, but it's unclear whether any design time has been spent on the actual, difficult parts of making a car work, things like the differential[5] which will be needed regardless of whether the car is gas-powered or electric (I'll point out that whether the car is gas-powered or electric is unclear from the designs).

Meanwhile, they're missing a lathe: it's boring technology, but I'm not sure how they're planning to make bolts to bolt together their machines without a lathe. Think of a "boring" tool you have in your house and it's probably not there: saws, drills, sanders are all missing. If you can't build a drill or a saw, I question whether you're ready to build a truck[6] or an industrial robot[7] (which again, won't work without a computer).

And if these are actually open source, I certainly can't find the source. All I see are PNGs. Their GitHub[8] contains mostly designs for parts of a 3D printer, which isn't one of the machines listed, and is even less important to modern life existing than any of the machines listed.

I'd be able to forgive everything I've said if there was even one working design on their site, but even simplest things like the Electric Motor/Generator[9] don't even have the descriptions filled out. If you wanted to build an electric motor/generator, you'd find more useful information on Wikipedia or YouTube.

Their most fleshed-out project seems to be the MicroHouse[10] which is, incidentally, not a machine. This means it doesn't require the engineering that the other projects do (which is probably why it's more fleshed out) but it also means that it isn't really useful: people have been figuring out how to build shelters since prehistory, from local materials rather than the super-cool-ultra-modern-eco-sustainable materials they're proposing. And this project suffers from the same problems as their overall projects: it has three sources of electricity but no apparent reference to plumbing.

I hate to be so negative about all this, but I fear that wildly unfocused projects like this take money and expertise away from projects with real potential and direction. Ideas are a dime a dozen: implementation is much more rare.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21046984

[2] https://www.opensourceecology.org/gvcs/gvcs-machine-index/#p...

[3] https://www.opensourceecology.org/portfolio/3d-scanner-2/

[4] https://www.opensourceecology.org/portfolio/car/

[5] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_(mechanical_dev...

[6] https://www.opensourceecology.org/portfolio/truck/

[7] https://www.opensourceecology.org/portfolio/industrial-robot...

[8] https://github.com/OpenSourceEcology

[9] https://www.opensourceecology.org/portfolio/electric-motorge...

[10] https://www.opensourceecology.org/portfolio/microhouse/