taran said...
My grandparents were all born around 1900, before radios, airplanes, cars were known. For my grandmother, who only recently died, the technological changes and the radical environmental transformation of the nation she witnessed was nothing short of stupendous. However, for most of her childhood and young adult years, she lived in the country, without electricity and with horses for transportation. Interestingly, she never forgot the "old ways", which no doubt greatly facilitated successfully negotiating the challanges of the Great Depression. She baked her own bread, always maintained some sort of garden and never got around to getting a drivers license which meant walking everywhere unless offered a lift. She used old fashion tools like a trundle sewing machine and hand powereed kitchen utensils. Much of the furniture she had throughout her life was made by my grandfather, a woodworker by trade.I inhereted many of these items after her death, and now, I value these possessions greatly as they speak of a time in which people were more self-reliant and resilent.
Like so many of her generation, my grandmother also understood money and its value. She carefully recorded every cent spent, saved religiously, and somehow always had enough, even though she didn't hold a "real job" for the last forty years of her life. In the end, she left a sizeable chunk of money to her heirs, which had sat in simple bank CD's accumulating compound interest over the years
My grandmother's way can be seen as a model for the future. Hers was not a life of deprivation in any sense. Rather, she lived fully, though simply, close to family, close to the land, and close to her community.
7/6/06, 1:24 PM
Robert Riversong said...
Your analysis is both germaine and hopeful, but it ignores the most important element of this time of Earth Changes.
There was one striking exception to your historical analysis of the centuries-long process of civilizational decline: the Flood.
Far beyond peak oil and resource depletion, the crisis we're facing now is defined by Global Catastrophic Climate Change. Like the time of the Great Flood, we will not have centuries to unlearn our extravagant ways and relearn the simple technologies of the past. We are likely to have one generation to make the shift.
Whether modern human culture can adapt that quickly is a very open question.
8/10/06, 5:39 PM
Robert Riversong said...
Your analysis is both germaine and hopeful, but it ignores the most important element of this time of Earth Changes.
There was one striking exception to your historical analysis of the centuries-long process of civilizational decline: the Flood.
Far beyond peak oil and resource depletion, the crisis we're facing now is defined by Global Catastrophic Climate Change. Like the time of the Great Flood, we will not have centuries to unlearn our extravagant ways and relearn the simple technologies of the past. We are likely to have one generation to make the shift.
Whether modern human culture can adapt that quickly is a very open question.
8/10/06, 5:40 PM
Joel said...
You're saying no one owns a broom, now that vacuum cleaners exist? I can't name a single area of technology in which the lower rungs have been kicked from the ladder. Not one.
Yes, that includes electronics. Mechanical logic, electromechanical relays, vacuum tubes, discrete transistors, and small-scale integrated circuits all remain in wide use. Even the most computerized car has all of these on board, with the possible exception of (vibration-sensitive) tubes.
The course I took on lasers last year involved building an optical resonator by hand, and adjusting the needle valves on a 1970's behemoth until the gas mixture was just right.
Also, last year, I started the first research job I've ever had which didn't involve using an IBM XT or earlier computer to run an X-ray diffractometer (XRD).
Of course, in the course of learning to use XRDs, I was trained in the use of alternate methods where photographic film and books of tables to do the job done by that IMB XT. I'm confident that, given a year, 5 at the outside, I could build such a simple machine; I'd also know how to go about re-discovering the information in the tables, once the machine was functional. I've made photo paper by hand before, so the only tricky parts would probably be the Beryllium window, and the HV power supply. There will be enough dead TVs to salvage the latter for quite some time, and a Tesla coil or even a Van De Graff would probably work in a pinch, while most diffractometry experiments work better with a nickel monochrometer in the beam, so replacing the window material might not sacrifice much functionality.
What retired engineers have you been talking to, that don't know how older technology works? Personally, I'm glad they're retired, if what you say is true. They sound quite unlike any of the old engineers I've worked with.
4/21/07, 9:07 PM
Jeremiah said...
Here is a link to catabolic collapse reference:
http://www.dylan.org.uk/greer_on_collapse.pdf
8/31/10, 11:08 AM
