[attn: Jonathan ] Worth the read - and thinking about - and acting on. For me, the term technology is broader than most people consider. It means: what we know how to do - and, by extension, the products, byproducts, and externalities involved. For me, this would include living a less consumerist, less convenient life - in a broader sense, living within what the ecosystem can support. The tech behind that is a balance of efficiency and resource sharing. For me there are technologies of lifestyle, economics, and culture. Applied know how and the products thereof of behavioral choices. I will totally admit that I could do better - more with less, less instead of more, and nothing at all instead of things I really dont need - or know do more harm than good. Whatever the case, its clear we all need to use less. Far less. I contend that most people would and will almost automatically pare down given general societal trends and general awareness of the overall costs. Millennials are definitely going in that direction - smaller housing space, fewer cars, ride sharing, denser urban life, etc. Ah - but what about the smartphone that averages the same energy consumption as the average refrigerator? Has its GPS function made up for it by saving gas once burned in being lost or choosing inefficient routes? Has email, texting, cloud-computing, telecommuting, better meeting and time management tools, etc. reduced wasted travel as well? Hard to say. But it has to do better than offset that pocket refrigerator - like the one Im typing on now. The typical American home consumes twice as much as its European counterpart which is halved again in places like India. There is a less that can be quite comfortable, livable, enjoyable, and fulfilling - possibly more so than our excesses provide. So, since my broad definition of technology is not a widely held one, and we all, clearly, need to alter our behaviors to survive this, I believe I can concede what some friends of mine may have been attempting to say to me about this. Maybe cultural paradigm shifts are a kind of behavioral technology - but it confuses the issue to put it that way. Under a more narrow, likely more ordinary, definition - technology is, indeed, not the whole answer.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 00:29:43 +0000
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