From Rainbow Appropriate Technology, 1977:
INVISIBLE TECHNOLOGIES
The best technologies are often the invisible ones-where people have figured out how to avoid problems rather than to solve them. Often all that is required is a perceptual change such as seeing grasshoppers as an airborne mobile protein harvesting and conversion unit-a food source-rather than a destructive pest. Or living near where we work rather than building better transportation technologies. Or eating lower on the food chain so you don’t have to pay for or grow food for the conversion losses of meat animals. Or planting trees rather than air conditioners.
The second-best technologies are also invisible. They’re based on people’s skills and relationships rather than machines
-the skilled calligrapher drawing a line or carpenter cutting a line rather than needing a jig or machine: good neighbors rather than locks on doors; caring for the ill or elderly at home rather than in a Home; hiking rather than mini-biking: an auto mechanic or piano tuner’s ear rather than a tuning machine.
But there’s always a range of skilis and scales and situations where things need to happen, and we’re interested in expanding the range of tools for situations that have been neglected, and learning when there are good reasons for choosing one scale rather than another. One size can’t fit every situation well, and a technology that tries is likely not to fit any well.
Having to solve problems without money usually results in people getting resourceful and finding creative ways to use wbat is already there. Money usually makes us lazy and we end up paying for our laziness and second rate solutions to problems. Appropriate Technology repeatedly contains good examples of a.t. equipment and ideas. Here are some of the interesting projects they’ve covered recently.
• A Nigerian project making medical aids such as arm splints, spinal jackets and cervical collars from broken plastic drain-pipes. The products are made by marking the pipe with a paper template, cutting out with a hacksaw and handstretching the plastic softened over a flame. The resulting equipment works better than previous products, as they can be easily adjusted by a nurse or doctor for a perfect fit for every individual and are waterproof, strong, cheap and reusable.
- A candle-making merry go-round that produces 600 candles per hour with a single operator (could be solar heated?).
- Nethouse horticulture in Botswana, where it is noted that a high percentage of a plant’s water requirement is not for growth but to cool it during respiration. Nethouses shade and cool, reducing water use by 2/3, and keep birds, insects and hail out.
Be resourceful, be clever, be wise.
