Low-Tech/ Design for the other 90%

If you think the only direction technology can go in is bigger and more complicated, these two sites are really worth checking out.

Low-Tech Magazine suggests ways to accomplish our world's tasks with less, rather than more, technology.Check out this article on why Citroën cars from the fifties through the eighties are more energy-efficient than the newest models.

Design for the Other 90% describes itself:

Of the world’s total population of 6.5 billion, 5.8 billion people, or 90%, have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted; in fact, nearly half do not have regular access to food, clean water, or shelter. Design for the Other 90% explores a growing movement among designers to design low-cost solutions for this “other 90%.” Through partnerships both local and global, individuals and organizations are finding unique ways to address the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world’s poor and marginalized.

Check out this design for a Big Boda Load-Carrying Bicycle-- capable of carrying hundreds of pounds or two additional passengers.

You talking to ME?

A few weeks ago I stayed overnight at my daughter's house. I went outside about 6:30 am. the next morning to sit on the stairs and have a smoke.

A car pulled up across the street and a woman got out. She was talking to herself as she walked towards a neighboring house and in the morning's quiet I could hear her clearly.

"It doesn't matter," she said. "It doesn't matter. It. Doesn't. Matter."

I had about two seconds of thoughts rushing through my mind--My God, she sounds suicidal. Does my daughter know who she is? Should I say anything?-- before I realized she was talking on a cell phone.

Yesterday I saw two girls walking side by side down Hancock St. I won't say walking together, as each was on a cell phone talking to someone else!

I'm not a Luddite although I'm concerned about the consequences of technology driven by profit. But I wonder what it means that so few of us can stand to be alone with ourselves, Rather than cherish what little silence we have in our lives, we fear silence and try to banish it.

For a more cautionary look at cell phones, check out this Alternet article by Stanley Cox.