Their claim, "described best by Jane Jacobs, who claims that the highest level of evolution (like Maslow’s Pyramid) for cities - is for those cities to return t

Their claim, "described best by Jane Jacobs, who claims that the highest level of evolution (like Maslow’s Pyramid) for cities - is for those cities to return to local production (import substitution)." is false. Jane Jacobs described import replacing as a stage from importing to exporting. It keeps capital in the city by not using as much of it for imports, while developing manufacturing skills suitable for producing exports. Also, as she points out, it just changes the makeup of imports, you import the raw materials instead of the finished items. Microfactories are a neat idea for several reasons, there is no need to misrepresent their benefits. I have been playing around with the idea since the late 1980s, the technology still has a good ways to go before it is practical though.