However, as for the desirability of such a thing, well, that seems a bit easier to answer.  The possibility of a "half-industrial" society provides an alternative to the either/or dichotomy we seem faced with - mass industrialism or life in 1700.  There are things that are good and useful and valuable in our modern technological repertoire, but our current means of producing them is horribly wasteful and environmentally damaging.  As most of our technology has been developed in the age of mass-production, our ways of thinking about these things has been similarly linked to the idea of mass-production.  However, is this a necessary link?  I don't think the technological means or possibilities of small-scale production have really been explored, because in our current system, they don't make sense.  However, that does not mean that they are impossible.

This is turning into a diary.  Maybe I'll write one.