Where should we spend our time instead?

Definitely not novel at this stage, but once we modify the AWG to achieve water reclamation from urine, would that be considered novel?

The next milestone is to create open source designs for larger-scale, commercially available machines that are prohibitively expensive, and improve upon them. The machines exist and there is a market for them. Is it not worth the time and effort to increase access to technologies like this?

Not just knowledge of chemistry, but actively developing eyedrops to cure cataracts :)

http://www.viewpointtherapeutics.com/team/

EDIT: Wording. Added question.

>Where should we spend our time instead?

That's for you to decide. There's nothing wrong with your project, I just don't see any real-world utility.

>once we modify the AWG to achieve water reclamation from urine, would that be considered novel?

Not at all. It wouldn't even be a "Atmospheric Water Generator" anymore. You would just be putting an evaporator in a closed space with your condenser... This isn't a new or novel technology, and it's already available for public use.

>Not just knowledge of chemistry, but actively developing eyedrops to cure cataracts :)

That's really cool, and I am not doubting her credentials, but it has nothing to do you with your AWG. We're talking about a device that condenses water vapor into liquid water. If you have access to Freon and and a pump (or even ice cubes and a glass) you can achieve the same thing.

Again, I don't take any personal offense to what you're doing. I would never invest in it because I don't think any amount of funding would ever turn this project into a success. It doesn't even address the real issues behind water scarcity, which has nothing to do with a shortage of liquid water...

> This isn't a new or novel technology, and it's already available for public use.

Can you point me in the direction of this project? I'd like to see what the current implementation looks like.

> (or even ice cubes and a glass) you can achieve the same thing.

We're trying to do it at scale and improve on the technology.

> real issues behind water scarcity, which has nothing to do with a shortage of liquid water

Can you elaborate on this point?

Agreed that AWGs, especially vapor-compression systems, aren't exactly mind blowing technology, but I'm excited for this for a different reason:

I really like the idea of having open source infrastructure. I would like to see people build open source electric vehicles, farming robots, membrane bioreactors, etc. For the naysayers, at least two of these are already a thing: https://www.osvehicle.com/ https://farmbot.io/

Let's see how far these things get. Open source software has come a long way but there's a whole host of challenges with open source hardware projects which we haven't solved yet (open source toolchains for designing said hardware, open standards for modularity, collaboration tools, etc.). The only way we're going to overcome these challenges [and discover the ones we don't know about yet] is to try it.

To that end, I'm glad that this project IS relatively simple -- I think that increases its chances for success, especially considering that this is uncharted territory for most of the team members.

Moreover, there does seem to be a market for these things: http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-at... and I would expect that the cost of energy should eventually go down as we develop less naive means for generating energy.

I'm all for it. Work that dehumidifier.

TL;DR The meta problem of open source hardware is interesting in and of itself.

I'd agree but, isn't it open? You could go and help them.

It's not that I think their AWG isn't good enough, it's that I think a AWG isn't the answer to the problem they're addressing.

Agreed that the problem being addressed is not stated clearly enough.

If the goal is to provide clean drinking water in emergency situations, then this could definitely help. If the goal is to provide a sustainable source of clean water for a large population, then this is not the solution (there's a pun in there somewhere).

Regarding emergencies... no electricity generally. So, how about this: http://www.ezwaterwellhandpumps.com/ for approx. $169.

The only downside is that the water table needs to be relatively shallow

Interesting. How often is the groundwater potable during an emergency situation?

Since it's intended for an art installation, any shortcomings in the actual functionality of the device can be excused with the magical phrase "we're trying to start a dialog / get people thinking about X, not actually do X"

Doesn't seem much different than a normal venture capital startup with no viable product er marketing hype as a platform.

That's a pretty good comparison, I like it!

> but this whole project seems like a total waste of time

Are you talking about just the water generator, or the "civilization-in-a-box" collection of modules?

It's an art installation at Burning Man, not a livelihood?