My "we" claim, specifically, was, "Before going down the rabbit holes, we didn't know which ones were unnecessary." Out of the multitude of objects and subjects that you name, none knew which of the rabbit holes RepRap went down were unnecessary. Some of them had some beliefs about it, but those beliefs were unjustified, and most of them were evidently wrong, so they did not constitute "knowledge" as commonly understood.
Therefore the diversity of humanity, the ITU, libido, and so on, are irrelevant to my claim.
Ex ante, there was nothing distinguishing the proposition that a usable 3-D printer needed precision-ground leadscrews from the proposition that a usable 3-D printer needed a heated build plate. By trying hard to do without, we found that the first one was false but the second one probably true.
Sounds like the US wanted to make the Soviet Union its colony, limiting its technical progress, but failed. Possibly, if they'd succeeded, they would have nuked Russia (and Ukraine, Belarus, etc.) in the 70s or 80s, confident they could track and sink all the Soviet submarines before they could launch a retaliatory salvo. Or possibly not; they might not have had a way to disable the other two legs of the nuclear triad, or not been confident in it. Or perhaps they would have hesitated to initiate a nuclear war in any case.
Therefore the diversity of humanity, the ITU, libido, and so on, are irrelevant to my claim.
Ex ante, there was nothing distinguishing the proposition that a usable 3-D printer needed precision-ground leadscrews from the proposition that a usable 3-D printer needed a heated build plate. By trying hard to do without, we found that the first one was false but the second one probably true.