💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2024 › 202410 › 20241016-wide-technology.gmi captured on 2024-12-17 at 10:32:03. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
---
About three weeks ago, I stopped regularly wearing my quartz wristwatches and switched to a hand-wound mechanical pocket watch. It isn't as accurate as electronic timepieces--it gains about 15 seconds per day--but for a device that relies entirely on mechanical principles, I won't complain. It suffices to simply wind the watch once a day and re-calibrate the time once a week.
From the pocket watch to my typewriter, from my bicycle to a good old-fashioned backyard fire pit, I try to include a lot of off-grid tools in my life. These tools are all forms of technology, and we as humans have benefit ted from their invention. And just because they don't use electricy doesn't mean they're useless today. After all, not everything requires computerization--and not everything improves with computerization either.
There was once a time when common usage of the term "high technology" referred to all kinds of technical advancements. This is still true in the world of industry, where commercial needs lead to a wide variety of innovations. But on the consumer side, "high technology" seems to refer almost exclusively to high degrees of computerization. A digital scale is more "high tech" than an analog scale. Same for cellular phones versus landlines, Internet-capable devices versus offline, and more recently, AI-powered communications versus human interaction. The result may be "high" tech, but it's also very narrow.
I want to adopt a different position: "wide technology". I want some of my tools to be electronic, while others are mechanical. I want to use chemical and even biological principles to do some of my tasks. I want to use gravity, inertia, simple machines, heat from the Sun, and other phenomena directly, without wasting energy through conversion. I'm not interested in turning everything into electricity and doling it out as other forms of energy as needed. I want to do things as directly as possible.
Similar do-it-yourself sentiments are common on Gemini. Yesterday Vi Grey made a post referencing his goal last year to determine the time based on first principles.^ As it happens, I had a thought to build a sundial in my backyard, track the passage of time with it, and potentially use it to calibrate my pocket watch over long periods of time. It isn't quite the same project, but I think our desires align: make useful tools that don't rely on continuous electricy or outside knowledge.
^ Winter Nights 2024 - Oaths and Deleting My Mastodon Account
---
[Last updated: 2024-10-17]