Listicle: 5 Practical Technologies
…ecologically speaking
We can really love the earth, and nature, and a healthy ecology, and live in a long-term sustainable way, while keeping the following technologies. (As opposed to the Disgusting Things discussed in my previous post.)
1. Clothing. We are the naked apes. I cannot think of any other naked mammals except the naked mole rat and those funky Sphinx cats. Nature having not provided us with lovely fur coats, it is quite practical that we wear clothes.
2. Houses. While single-family dwellings and single-person apartments seem to go against our social nature, some kind of protection from the elements is practical. Native American teepees or long houses would be better maybe? (Do Native American teenagers ever TP an enemy’s teepee? Sorry.)
3. Fire. Humans have used fire to cook food stay warm for hundreds of thousands of years. It is practical and sustainable.
4. Energy. While industrial technology is out of the question, I envision a steam punk level of technology could be sustainable. I’m working on a theory that we get into trouble when we start depending on concentrated sources of energy such as fossil fuels and electricity. Perhaps we can devise a technology that stores only heat from the sun. Certainly that could work for space and water heating. Also allowed: water wheels. I’m not so sure about steam engines, not if we have to burn fuel (as opposed to storing heat from the sun). Not if we cut down forests to boil the water to make the steam. So not so much steam punk as water punk. It would probably mean we cannot have steel or cement, unless we invent new ways to make them. It seems like cement production can be made with smaller ecological impact, as there is much research ongoing in this area. So perhaps we can still have concrete as a building material. But fuhgeddabout steel skyscrapers. Besides, you can’t really run a skyscaper without electricity.
5. Medicine and health care. As long as we are alive, it is better to be healthy. However, if we didn’t have our high-density energy stores and industrial technology, much of our medicines and health care would be seriously degraded. That’s okay, because we have too much population and probably live too long anyway. I just wish we had a culture that embraced suicide rather than discouraging it because it would be one clean way to deal with health problems and suffering, as well as help with population control. (I’m thinking of purely elective systems, nothing like forced euthanasia.)
I acknowledge that all of these technologies are pretty disgusting the way we implement them today, ecologically speaking. But I believe some form of each of these technologies would be possible in a sustainable, ecologically sound human culture.
— Lannie Rose, February 2023
preferred pronouns: she/her/hers
Written with NO HELP from ChatGTP or other AI resource
