So Alblaka, you asked me to ask this question again once 1.8 is out, which finally happened at last 
So here comes a copypasta from my previous thread, with a little addition i think could be neat together with this system.
Suggestion:
Would it be a good idea that building machines could give you experience points, or some form of experience? Perhaps that more advanced machines requires higher experience level to build?
Perhaps there could even be a technological experience level beside the regular experience, if possible that is.
Leveling your technological skills together with your amount of resources could be a fun challenge. It would be a good thing if it was toggle-able though, for those who just want to build IC1 style.
Here is a little example of how this technological xp value could be shown in the HUD:
Because the original XP-bar sucks i feel that it's much better to show a value instead of a bar. That way it's much more obvious how much XP points you need in order to "level up", or to build a certain machine that is. There should be a max value which represent the highest level of experience, required to build the most advanced machine(s).
Crafting primitive vanilla tools could also increase this XP-value slightly, so that meeting the lowest requirements for building the most primitive IC-machines can be reached relatively easily in the early game.
Also: Books have always been pretty useless for other things than building bookcases.
Considering this system of experience points, books could be a way of sharing experience points with others, either by "consuming them" (like eating food) or by spreading experience orbs around the player when right clicking (consuming the book). It would symbolize knowledge sharing through reading a book.
Maybe the item could be unique to avoid conflict with the original book item, with a name like "Technological Manual", "Industrial Compendium", or whatever you wish to call it.
You might even make it into two tiers where the "Technological manual" is the first one, giving minor amount of experience points, and the "Industrial Compendium" (crafted from nine smaller manuals) will give you more experience points than nine smaller manuals consumed on their own.
Technological Manual
Industrial Compendium
