There's a good reason that a lot of us sutainabilty-oriented types appreciate the old Maytag wringer washers. It's not just that they're as water-efficient as front-loaders (you can wash the next load in the tub of rinse water from the last load). It's that they don't break. What you have is a motor and a gearbox to drive the agitator, a lever to engage the gear that drives the wringer, and a power switch. On/Off. They typically last fifty years, or double that if you can find a few spare parts. The only thing simpler is your basic circular saw: a motor and a blade.
This diary is about what makes for good technology, and bad technology.
The component of modern washers that's most likely to fail is the microprocessor-controlled circuit board. So ask yourself this: what's a microprocessor doing in a washing machine in the first place? Maybe it's doing the same thing it does in a modern automobile's braking system?
Complexity produces collapse. When the computer hiding in your washer quits, it's merely a pain in the butt. When the computer hiding behind your brake pedal quits, it's potentially a fatal accident. When the entire infrastructure of "civilization" has climbed out on the limb of excessive complexity, it's potentially a fatal accident on a global scale.
...on 14 August 2003... insufficient tree trimming in Columbus OH caused a single power line to wear. That caused a power surge throughout the power grid, and the largest electrical blackout in North American history. One-seventh of the United States' population, and one-third of Canada's, went without power. The economic toll was estimated at $6 billion. All for an untrimmed tree in Ohio.
Increasing complexity without increasing redundancy means an escalating probability of disaster for the whole network. ... The solution to such vulnerabilities, of course, is simple: create redundancy.
....(However), competition (driven by the demand for growth) creates an environment where building redundancy is impossible. An entity that spends its resources building in redundancy to guard against possible future vulnerabilities is not using those resources to grow. A (company) that chooses to grow is more vulnerable, but has significant short-term advantages that will allow it to out-compete its more forward-thinking competitor, and makes (the latter's) planning for the future a moot point.
-Jason Godesky, Thesis 19, Complexity Ensures Collapse.
A paradigm for technology.
Good technology is robust, reliable, and resilient. It's designed to last, it can be counted on to work with minimal chance of failure, and if it breaks down it can easily be repaired.
Good technology is efficient: it minimizes the use of raw materials and energy, and it minimizes the use of things that have to be thrown away. It's designed so that its components can be repaired, or recycled for their raw materials.
Good technology is simple: it does not climb out on the limb of needless complexity where failure becomes likely and has cascading consequences. To the extent that complexity is needed, it is contained as far as possible, rather than spreading like a virus.
Bad technology is flakey: it can't be counted on to perform its essential functions. Bad technology attempts to cover up its flaws by adding flashy nonsense that has nothing to do with its core functionality.
Bad technology maximizes obsolescence for the sake of increasing sales. Disposable parts are another variation of this curse.
Bad technology maximizes complexity, usually for the sake of keeping a competitive edge via intellectual property. The patents long ago expired on your basic circular saw, but if you add a microprocessor and some flashing lights and an LC Display, you have a new patent (and a product that will likely break down and have to be replaced often).
Bad technology misuses good technology by attempting to shoe-horn it into roles for which it was not designed and is ill-suited. For example your washing machine, not to mention your fridge, does not need an Ethernet connection (yet attempts are being made to do just that).
Bad technology appeals to the chimpanzee urge to grasp at anything shiny and new, rather than appealing to the part of the mind that makes thoughtful choices.
In general, bad technology is driven by the addiction to growth, rather than by real functional need.
An alarm clock that fails to keep accurate time is useless, regardless of whether it comes with a radio, iPod dock, and wireless connection to turn on your coffee maker before you even climb out of bed. A telephone that can't carry an un-interrupted conversation is useless, regardless of whether it lets you play video games. A disposable camera is an obscenity even if it does manage to take pictures: not only due to the actual wastefulness of the product, but even more due to the psychology it fosters, of careless disregard for the Earth's resources and the things we make from them. A banking system that destroys wealth is useless, even if it enables masses of people to believe they own homes for just long enough that they'll vote Republican.
An example that serves to illustrate: and most of us had one.
One of the best examples of good technology, and sustainable technology, was the entire infrastructure of the Bell Telephone System, that existed in the US for a little over a century. I can speak to this personally from 25 years in the telephone systems industry.
The Western Electric type 500 telephone was produced from 1949 through about 2006. For most of its nearly 60-year lifespan it was the archetypal American telephone, and anyone 25 years old or older probably remembers having one (or one of the smaller "independent" telcos' versions of it). All of the major components and most of the minor ones are interchangeable from the very first one made, to the very last. Most of those components are interchangeable with the Touchtone variant, type 1500 (1963-1968) or 2500 (1968 to present).
At the other end of your telephone line was the telco central office, wherein resided a switching machine such as the one below. That one is a Strowger switch for a small rural telco with about 300 subscribers; other types were the Panel Dial system and the Crossbar system. If you lived in Manhattan you were probably on a Panel system, in Connecticut you were on a Strowger system, and in New Jersey you were probably on Crossbar. If you knew what to listen for, you could figure out which one you had by the sound of the call progress tones: the dial tone, busy tone, ringback tone, and the no-such-number tone we used to call the "cat howler," that sounded like a cat meowing loudly into the phone; and by the various clicks and whirrs you heard between the time you picked up the receiver and the time the person you were calling answered.
The telephones and the switching machines were designed to last 40 years or longer. They could be reconditioned and kept in service for twice that length of time if needed. They could be repaired with simple tools, though if I recall correctly, your average 500-set typically went about 17 years between repairs. Overhead cable on the telephone poles typically lasted 35 years, but underground cable under the streets, if properly installed, could last over a century.
Equipment that couldn't be repaired was stripped down for usable parts, and whatever couldn't be reused that way was recycled directly. For example, cracked telephone housings were melted down and turned into new ones, and damaged cable was melted down and turned into new wire. The input of raw materials was minimal, the output of waste was minimal, and the embodied energy of manufacturing was spread out over decades.
The only complex part of the system was the switching machine, which was, admittedly, the most complex technology of its time. But that complexity resided in a building downtown, where highly-skilled engineering and technical personnel took care of it, and kept it running nearly flawlessly for decades.
The power to run the whole thing came from a large AC/DC rectifier and "motor/generator set" at the central office, backed up by a battery bank, that in turn was backed up by a diesel generator with a month's supply of fuel on site at all times. In the event of a power failure on the electrical grid, the phones kept right on working. This is an example of Godesky's point about redundancy.
The system could even survive a nuclear war. In fact, when the electromagnetic pulse effects of nuclear weapons were first discovered, it was also discovered that they did not cause damage to the telephone network. The Strowger switches still whirred and buzzed as if nothing had happened, and even the "cat howler" kept meowing away if someone mis-dialed. If you were talking on the phone when an atomic bomb test went off within a hundred miles or so, you might hear a click! when the EMP occurred, and ask "what was that?", and then keep right on blabbing away.
All of this enabled you to have un-interrupted conversations with excellent sound quality, from across the street to across the country. Today that almost sounds like science fiction: Uninterrupted conversations! Excellent sound quality! And it kept working during power failures!
The point of all this is:
Don't let anyone tell you that we can't build technology that's robust, reliable, and resilient, and that's simple and sustainable. We did it, and it was the best in the world in its time.
We also did it with urban rail systems, but then we tore up the tracks because General Motors and Big Oil convinced America that private automobiles were the future: convenient, modern, powerful, and stylish. If you wonder how people were so easily convinced to allow the rails to be ripped up in favor of automobiles, just listen every time you hear someone say they don't want a landline because they have the latest new mobile thing-a-ma-jig that comes with hundreds of "apps." When you hear someone say they don't want a landline telephone, that's today's equivalent of "I have a car, why do I want those clunky old trollies?"
Most of the ingredients of a sustainable telephone network still exist. The electromechanical switching machines have been replaced with digital switches that are almost as robust (and that consume quite a bit more power). The telco central offices still have triple-redundant power supplies. The cables along the streets, like the trolly tracks a century ago, are still there. For now. But they will only remain if people continue to use them. And that choice, like the telephone receiver, is in your hands.
Every dollar spent, is a vote cast.
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Here are a few important links:
- Annie Leonard's crucial movie, The Story of Stuff.
- An invaluable tool for calculating the ecological footprint of your lifestyle, from the good folks at Redefining Progress. What's your score?
- The Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
- SCRAP - a creative reuse center, store and workshop space.
Donations of high quality, low cost, re-usable materials such as textiles, paper, jewelry findings, wood, buttons and plastics are collected from businesses, institutions and individuals then sorted, displayed and distributed by SCRAP for artists, educational and community groups.
For more creative reuse centers around the country, click here.
- Profound and stimulating philosophical perspectives on sustainability, civilization and the role of human nature from Jason Godesky.
If you have a resource that should be included in ECSTASY diaries, please include the link and a few words about it in the comments.
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ECSTASY diaries will appear most often on weekends and Wednesday evenings. All diaries dealing with the problems of living in a Consumerist society are potential candidates. If you think you've got something to contribute, please contact WarrenS and he'll schedule you in.
The next diary planned is expected on Sunday, April 11, when we will hear from B Amer about bicycles.
The ECSTASY series thus far:
February 28: Introducing ECSTASY.
March 7: The Work of Julian Lee and Juliet Schor: Two Voices of Sanity.
March 10: G2Geek's Measure The Power.
March 14: Earthfire promoted Annie Leonard's appearance in Washington, DC
March 21: RL Miller tells us about Chickens
March 24: G2Geek prompts an unbelievable discussion about the
difference between Consumerist Time and Hunter-Gatherer Time.
March 28: citisven shares a thought-provoking and aesthetically satisfying look at the ways that one person's trash is another person's art materials.
March 31: G2geek tells us about how to use a scale to measure our usage of everything...and learn to use everything more efficiently.
April 4: WarrenS discusses the joys of making your own music and musical instruments.