This whole subthread throws me back to a discussion we had in 2006:

One also has to think of economies of scale, or rather of limitations imposed by small scales. There are technologies that simply cannot be deployed by a community below a certain size.

My point is that the technological infrastructure is not a cheat, it's precisely what allows you more control of the way to get there from here, and it may be what makes it possible to begin with.

I mean, suppose the Amish wanted to build a wind turbine. Are the turbine blades going to be made or wood, or wrought by an ironmonger? Where do you get advanced materials from?

Then again, 3D-printing holds long-term promise in this regard...

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman