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Lifehacker: Tarek Loubani on 3D-Printing in Gaza

113 points by bschne 7y ago

RcouF1uZ4gsC 7y ago
The stethoscope is one of those simple inventions that has had an outsize influence on the practice of medicine. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Laennec#Invention_of_the_stethoscope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Laennec#Invention_of... René Laennec wrote the classic treatise De l'Auscultation Médiate, published in August 1819[5][6] The preface reads: In 1816, He was consulted by a young woman laboring under general symptoms of diseased heart, and in whose case percussion and the application of the hand were of little avail on account of the great degree of fatness. The other method just mentioned [direct auscultation] being rendered inadmissible by the age and sex of the patient, I happened to recollect a simple and well-known fact in acoustics, ... the great distinctness with which we hear the scratch of a pin at one end of a piece of wood on applying our ear to the other. Immediately, on this suggestion, I rolled a quire of paper into a kind of cylinder and applied one end of it to the region of the heart and the other to my ear, and was not a little surprised and pleased to find that I could thereby perceive the action of the heart in a manner much more clear and distinct than I had ever been able to do by the immediate application of my ear.
sneak 7y ago
It bothers me that the term “capitalism” is being overloaded to mean “patents and intellectual property”. Other than that, this is a fantastic read, and it sounds like they are doing great work.
- littlestymaar 7y ago
  Capitalism describes a social organization where some people (the capitalists) own the means of production whereas most people are working for them. And nowadays, the «means of productions» are mostly in the form of patents and intellectual property (as most companies almost never build anything themselves[1], and pay contractors to build stuff for them). [1] Apple don't build Mac, Mc Donald's don't operate most of its restaurants, car manufacturers merely attach together a bunch of spare pieces built by contractors, etc.
  - bayesian_horse 7y ago
    You describe a general oligarchy. The point is that capital is not defined as the property of the capitalists. There are virtually no pure "capitalists" in the sense that they only own capital and do no work around that capital. In developed countries there aren't even that many pure workers, because most workers own insurance policies, some "means of production" or even equity in a company or two. The problems which are often called "capitalism" are in my opinion more about a power disequilibrium causing exploitation, especially using capital as power to take capital away from poorer people or distributing the value gain in a way that is perceived as inequitable.
    - littlestymaar 7y ago
      Capitalism is indeed a form of oligarchy, I don't think this is a controversial view. Oligarchies can be justified by different reasons: religion, lineage, etc. In the case of Capitalism, it's an oligarchy legitimated by the “merit” of the dominant, who were somehow chosen in the great market competition.
      - bayesian_horse 7y ago
        The point is that any form of oligarchy means redistribution of wealth from the powerless to the powerful. And capitalism is not about "merit" but about possession. Lots of "Capitalists" (by which I mean people who derive most of their income from capital investments rather than labor) have inherited much or most of their wealth. Merit is not a requirement. Enough property to exert power and therefore redistribute wealth however is.
        littlestymaar 7y ago
        “Merit” isn't a real thing, but it's the mythical value that's used as a moral justification of the current state of societies. Like virtue, honor or faith in other kind of oligarchies.
  - wtdata 7y ago
- faissaloo 7y ago
  I agree, I prefer to use the term 'modern capitalism' to refer to the current implementation.
- iamnotacrook 7y ago
  If one wasn't attempting to make money from others, and expect the State's help in doing so, it would make no sense for IP to exist as a concept. It's like when people say "competition is good for innovation". HN (the hobbiest stuff featured here, not the venture capitalist stuff) is proof that people will always do stuff for the fun of it. Hobbiests aren't competing - they're cooperating. Cooperation is far better for innovation than competition as you're helping each other and sharing resources, not making it harder for others to work in a similar area.
  - sneak 7y ago
    I don’t think I agree; hobbyists have rarely, if ever, made truly compelling end products. I don’t think hobbyists could have produced Uber in every city I visit, or the iPhone, or a usable desktop OS (not kernel - OS), or even the microprocessor.
- tareqak 7y ago
  To be fair, I think the interviewee is using the word “capitalism” to mean what some in the US today proclaim to be capitalism. I don’t have any citations for what I’m about to say, but I’ve heard of some US politicians describe the United States as a defender of both democracy and capitalism: compare this rhetoric with how similar US politicians describe “socialism” and “communism”. As a result, I interpret the interviewee simply continuing to make that association as incorrect as it is.
bengrunfeld 7y ago
Promises to build a stethoscope, actually builds rocket parts.
bryanrasmussen 7y ago
Using fucked up in the first sentence, not in quotes, gave me something like the feeling that reading Dante in Italian instead of Latin must have given his audience.
- burning_hamster 7y ago
  I know exactly what you mean. And yet after a page worth of text I felt like the editor made the right call: the text would have lost a bit of its soul if they had redacted it in a socially more accepted way.
  - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
    I don't think it was the wrong call, I was just surprised.
bayesian_horse 7y ago
He didn't convince me that the occupation of Gaza is almost over. I may not be an expert on the current state of the near-east conflicts, but it seemed to me as if the state of Israel doesn't really want to acknowledge the Palestinians as either citizens of Israel or as entitled to their own state. And the Palestinians are not going to cease existing just because they are inconvenient for the established states in the region. Nor do they seem to be able to reign in the radical elements in their midst.
- faissaloo 7y ago
  They have zero incentive to reign in their so called 'radical elements', they live in an apartheid state.
  - bayesian_horse 7y ago
    "Apartheid state" is an incendiary and useless label, though the comparison is indeed useful. Unfortunately, the continuing violence of Palestinians against Israelis and the rhetoric about the destruction of Israel are the main argument for maintaining that oppression. And a particularly good one, as far as reasons for oppressing people go.
    - aptidude187 7y ago
      "The continuing violence of Palestinians against Israelis" - This framing is just the manifestation of utter ignorance or of blatant bias. For those who are interested and want to construct their own opinion: [Genocidal Views: Israelis Speak Candidly About Palestinians](https://youtu.be/1e_dbsVQrk4 https://youtu.be/1e_dbsVQrk4) [Israeli Army Vet’s Exposé - “I Was the Terrorist”](https://youtu.be/1Rk1dAIhiVc https://youtu.be/1Rk1dAIhiVc) [Irish MP reads out quotes made by Israeli Ministers](https://youtu.be/5utTDGS3B_Q https://youtu.be/5utTDGS3B_Q) [If Americans Knew - What every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine](https://ifamericaknew.org/ https://ifamericaknew.org/) [Empire Files: How Palestine Became Colonized](https://youtu.be/BT5L4YU_Fl4 https://youtu.be/BT5L4YU_Fl4)
fouc 7y ago
This is a fascinating read. Love his hacker mentality.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
padraic7a 7y ago
This is a great and inspirational read. It demonstrates the application of a diy hacker solution to issues like medical shortages caused by the Israeli blockade, but also to dialysis machine vendor lockin which is a global issue. Check out the section on the difference between QA in the lab and field-testing! It's also a heartbreaking read to be honest. Check out this quote on why they spread their 3d printers around multiple locations; "There are two reasons we do this. One is that we want to promote the culture. The other is that we’re going to get bombed at some point. When that happens, if we are the only place that has all the 3D-printing knowledge or equipment, then we’re going to set back the entire movement by two or three years. The more we hoard the knowledge or hoard the equipment, the worse it will be. As it is, when our offices eventually do get bombed, we’ll probably only be set back a year. If somebody dies, obviously it will be even worse. "
- bschne 7y ago
  The level of pragmatism/resilience in statements like this is always baffling as an "outsider" who has never been in even a remotely comparable situation
  - Iv 7y ago
    It comes with a high toll on the locals mental health. This is a place that is home to 1.8 million people. The blockade has been on since 2007 (and in some other form before that).
- avip 7y ago
  Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
  - ocschwar 7y ago
    Israeli-Egyptian-Gazan blockade. What material makes it past the first two is then held tightly by the Hamas militias as a means of exerting control over the Gazan population.

113 points by bschne 7y ago

The stethoscope is one of those simple inventions that has had an outsize influence on the practice of medicine. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Laennec#Invention_of_the_stethoscope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Laennec#Invention_of... René Laennec wrote the classic treatise De l'Auscultation Médiate, published in August 1819[5][6] The preface reads: In 1816, He was consulted by a young woman laboring under general symptoms of diseased heart, and in whose case percussion and the application of the hand were of little avail on account of the great degree of fatness. The other method just mentioned [direct auscultation] being rendered inadmissible by the age and sex of the patient, I happened to recollect a simple and well-known fact in acoustics, ... the great distinctness with which we hear the scratch of a pin at one end of a piece of wood on applying our ear to the other. Immediately, on this suggestion, I rolled a quire of paper into a kind of cylinder and applied one end of it to the region of the heart and the other to my ear, and was not a little surprised and pleased to find that I could thereby perceive the action of the heart in a manner much more clear and distinct than I had ever been able to do by the immediate application of my ear.

sneak 7y ago

It bothers me that the term “capitalism” is being overloaded to mean “patents and intellectual property”. Other than that, this is a fantastic read, and it sounds like they are doing great work.

littlestymaar 7y ago
Capitalism describes a social organization where some people (the capitalists) own the means of production whereas most people are working for them. And nowadays, the «means of productions» are mostly in the form of patents and intellectual property (as most companies almost never build anything themselves[1], and pay contractors to build stuff for them). [1] Apple don't build Mac, Mc Donald's don't operate most of its restaurants, car manufacturers merely attach together a bunch of spare pieces built by contractors, etc.
- bayesian_horse 7y ago
  You describe a general oligarchy. The point is that capital is not defined as the property of the capitalists. There are virtually no pure "capitalists" in the sense that they only own capital and do no work around that capital. In developed countries there aren't even that many pure workers, because most workers own insurance policies, some "means of production" or even equity in a company or two. The problems which are often called "capitalism" are in my opinion more about a power disequilibrium causing exploitation, especially using capital as power to take capital away from poorer people or distributing the value gain in a way that is perceived as inequitable.
  - littlestymaar 7y ago
    Capitalism is indeed a form of oligarchy, I don't think this is a controversial view. Oligarchies can be justified by different reasons: religion, lineage, etc. In the case of Capitalism, it's an oligarchy legitimated by the “merit” of the dominant, who were somehow chosen in the great market competition.
    - bayesian_horse 7y ago
      The point is that any form of oligarchy means redistribution of wealth from the powerless to the powerful. And capitalism is not about "merit" but about possession. Lots of "Capitalists" (by which I mean people who derive most of their income from capital investments rather than labor) have inherited much or most of their wealth. Merit is not a requirement. Enough property to exert power and therefore redistribute wealth however is.
      - littlestymaar 7y ago
        “Merit” isn't a real thing, but it's the mythical value that's used as a moral justification of the current state of societies. Like virtue, honor or faith in other kind of oligarchies.
- wtdata 7y ago
faissaloo 7y ago
I agree, I prefer to use the term 'modern capitalism' to refer to the current implementation.
iamnotacrook 7y ago
If one wasn't attempting to make money from others, and expect the State's help in doing so, it would make no sense for IP to exist as a concept. It's like when people say "competition is good for innovation". HN (the hobbiest stuff featured here, not the venture capitalist stuff) is proof that people will always do stuff for the fun of it. Hobbiests aren't competing - they're cooperating. Cooperation is far better for innovation than competition as you're helping each other and sharing resources, not making it harder for others to work in a similar area.
- sneak 7y ago
  I don’t think I agree; hobbyists have rarely, if ever, made truly compelling end products. I don’t think hobbyists could have produced Uber in every city I visit, or the iPhone, or a usable desktop OS (not kernel - OS), or even the microprocessor.
tareqak 7y ago
To be fair, I think the interviewee is using the word “capitalism” to mean what some in the US today proclaim to be capitalism. I don’t have any citations for what I’m about to say, but I’ve heard of some US politicians describe the United States as a defender of both democracy and capitalism: compare this rhetoric with how similar US politicians describe “socialism” and “communism”. As a result, I interpret the interviewee simply continuing to make that association as incorrect as it is.

bengrunfeld 7y ago

Promises to build a stethoscope, actually builds rocket parts.

bryanrasmussen 7y ago

Using fucked up in the first sentence, not in quotes, gave me something like the feeling that reading Dante in Italian instead of Latin must have given his audience.

burning_hamster 7y ago
I know exactly what you mean. And yet after a page worth of text I felt like the editor made the right call: the text would have lost a bit of its soul if they had redacted it in a socially more accepted way.
- bryanrasmussen 7y ago
  I don't think it was the wrong call, I was just surprised.

bayesian_horse 7y ago

He didn't convince me that the occupation of Gaza is almost over. I may not be an expert on the current state of the near-east conflicts, but it seemed to me as if the state of Israel doesn't really want to acknowledge the Palestinians as either citizens of Israel or as entitled to their own state. And the Palestinians are not going to cease existing just because they are inconvenient for the established states in the region. Nor do they seem to be able to reign in the radical elements in their midst.

faissaloo 7y ago
They have zero incentive to reign in their so called 'radical elements', they live in an apartheid state.
- bayesian_horse 7y ago
  "Apartheid state" is an incendiary and useless label, though the comparison is indeed useful. Unfortunately, the continuing violence of Palestinians against Israelis and the rhetoric about the destruction of Israel are the main argument for maintaining that oppression. And a particularly good one, as far as reasons for oppressing people go.
  - aptidude187 7y ago
    "The continuing violence of Palestinians against Israelis" - This framing is just the manifestation of utter ignorance or of blatant bias. For those who are interested and want to construct their own opinion: [Genocidal Views: Israelis Speak Candidly About Palestinians](https://youtu.be/1e_dbsVQrk4 https://youtu.be/1e_dbsVQrk4) [Israeli Army Vet’s Exposé - “I Was the Terrorist”](https://youtu.be/1Rk1dAIhiVc https://youtu.be/1Rk1dAIhiVc) [Irish MP reads out quotes made by Israeli Ministers](https://youtu.be/5utTDGS3B_Q https://youtu.be/5utTDGS3B_Q) [If Americans Knew - What every American needs to know about Israel/Palestine](https://ifamericaknew.org/ https://ifamericaknew.org/) [Empire Files: How Palestine Became Colonized](https://youtu.be/BT5L4YU_Fl4 https://youtu.be/BT5L4YU_Fl4)

fouc 7y ago

This is a fascinating read. Love his hacker mentality.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

padraic7a 7y ago

This is a great and inspirational read. It demonstrates the application of a diy hacker solution to issues like medical shortages caused by the Israeli blockade, but also to dialysis machine vendor lockin which is a global issue. Check out the section on the difference between QA in the lab and field-testing! It's also a heartbreaking read to be honest. Check out this quote on why they spread their 3d printers around multiple locations; "There are two reasons we do this. One is that we want to promote the culture. The other is that we’re going to get bombed at some point. When that happens, if we are the only place that has all the 3D-printing knowledge or equipment, then we’re going to set back the entire movement by two or three years. The more we hoard the knowledge or hoard the equipment, the worse it will be. As it is, when our offices eventually do get bombed, we’ll probably only be set back a year. If somebody dies, obviously it will be even worse. "

bschne 7y ago
The level of pragmatism/resilience in statements like this is always baffling as an "outsider" who has never been in even a remotely comparable situation
- Iv 7y ago
  It comes with a high toll on the locals mental health. This is a place that is home to 1.8 million people. The blockade has been on since 2007 (and in some other form before that).
avip 7y ago
Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
- ocschwar 7y ago
  Israeli-Egyptian-Gazan blockade. What material makes it past the first two is then held tightly by the Hamas militias as a means of exerting control over the Gazan population.