Physical Infrastructure as a YAML-file

In the software field the provisiong (fancy way of saying that we set up and configure) of technical infrastructure is largely automated with tools like Terraform. It is a tool where you define what you want into a relatively straightforward way in their own textual format called HCL (Hashicorp Configuration Language based on the company where it originated). A more common way would be to use a YAML-file (“Yet Another Markup Language” or nowadays fancy pants say “YAML Ain’t Markup Language”). Format is unimportant. Terraform uses the file and just passes commands out to “providers” (pieces of code) that do the actual work.

With human like robots just around the corner with interfaces for programmatic control, you start to see where this is going.

We’ve covered how energy can be locally harvested, CO₂ and N captured from air to generate all raw materials needed in chemical industries, how chemical industries are behind almost everythig that you consume (except metals that are recyclable), how flow chemistry from simple LEGO like blocks allows flexibility in local production, how food can also be grown in vertical gardens or meat in bioreactors, how printed electronics enables (at least some) electrical goods manufacturing locally, how digital goods can be managed in global repositories (like github if you are software development bent), how crypto-world is coming up with ways to make distributed decision, share rewards and handle disputes in decentralized jurisdictions and how human likes robots are gaining the dexterity of humans, all the pieces are in place.

We can break a very long and complex production systems into smaller and smaller pieces. Define each of those as a YAML file and then basically just execute those files (terraform apply), the robots go out to build needed components. These components are then used as feedstocks or parts in different manufacturing flows. All (or most) of the components in these flows to be re-usable (LEGO-like) for production of a multitude of end-products.

Ultimately we can visualize that there could be one YAML file referencing to other YAML-files referencing to more and so on, that you can use with a single command to set up a civilization.