Appropriate Technology - Appropriate Technology

Someone asked me, "Hey, I saw your post on Appropriate Technology. What's Appropriate Technology?"

Good question, glad you asked.

Sometimes I forget that I know things that not everyone knows. Appropriate technology is one of those things.

Let's break this down. Yes, I am a big believer in the dictionary. That rant will be in a minute.

"Appropriate," especially suitable or compatible.

"Technology," a capability given by the practical application of knowledge.

Appropriate Technology is using the right tool for the right situation in the right way.

There is an engineer's joke:

- Measure With Calipers (a very precise measuring tool)
- Mark With Chalk (a less precise marking device)
- Cut With An Axe (a much less precise cutting tool)

This is the opposite of appropriate.

In particular, in Social Ecology, the idea of Appropriate Technology is using exactly that technology suitable for the purpose, no more and no less.

In the early history of spaceflight, astronauts and cosmonauts needed to use some sort of tool to make marks in space. An ordinary pen simply wouldn't work.

NASA commissioned a pressurized ink cartridge pen that would flow smoothly in any conditions, including microgravity, and these 'Fisher Space Pens' made their inventor a small fortune.

Russia used pencils. But the small bits of graphite that break off when you use a pencil collect in microgravity, and can get into electronic circuits - and in a worst case, start a fire, which on a spacecraft is generally not survivable.

Both are examples of Appropriate Technology.

First it has to work. If it doesn't work, it's not appropriate.

Then it has to be elegant. In engineering terms, something elegant is simple, efficient and beautiful. Think of a stainless steel sink.

The opposite of elegance is - despite their advertising - anything to do with an internal combustion engine automobile, especially one of German manufacture.

The car is a great example of a Rube Goldberg gadget in which flaws are disguised by systems to address those flaws, and then systems on top of systems, creating a level of nightmarish complexity around which entire industries necessarily revolve. (There may be a panel about this at Baycon...)

The one saving grace of a car is that it works, that it gets you from point A to point B.

Recently a Tesla electric car collided with a Lime electric scooter. The comment in our local rag, the Murky, was "The most Silicon Valley thing ever!"

Both are examples of Appropriate Technology. An electric car is very simple. (The batteries are not... and therein lies a tale, but not right now.) An electric scooter is even more simple - if the rider wears a helmet.

So when I post about Appropriate Technology, I will post about a way of solving a problem that I think is particularly suitable.

Ecology matters too. Why wash your clothes with a bucket when there are washers in the world?

A clothes washer needs to be supplied with power and hot water. The hot water needs to be supplied by a water heater. These systems spiral up in complexity and scalability. A gas 'flash' hot water heater is a simple gadget, but the production and distribution system to bring propane to your home is impressively monstrous, and the underground pipeline system that brings 'natural gas' (what a marketing triumph to call it that) even more so. Just ask anyone who had to file an insurance claim for a cooked home in San Bruno.

The computer I type this on is itself a marvel of the modern world. Made overseas, shipped to America, parts sourced from all of the world, ultimately to be shipped back overseas and torn apart by scrappers for its little bits of gold and add a little toxicity to China. Plugged into a network of fearsome complexity, hosted on servers that ravenously turn power into waste heat (and require more power for AC cooling) ... you get the idea.

Perhaps I should be writing this blog with a Fisher Space Pen. Or even a pencil.

But then, who would read it? And that would fail the first test. It has to work to be appropriate.