About KuleKat
KuleKat looks at what might be termed “eco-technology” - technology that aims to redress the imbalances in nature we have caused by, well, technology.
Technology is one of the key defining characteristics of us humans. All the way back to primitive weapons and tools and even musical instruments and art, we have been almost utterly dependent upon our ingenuity and ability to create and use technology.
The simple ability to daub pictures on a cave wall gave us the means to communicate abstract ideas amongst others and to persist those ideas across generations. That early technology based on crude dyes and brushes led eventually to mass printing, then telecommunications and now the vast complex of zeroes and ones that has put this very information before you today.
Without our technology we are in many ways quite naked and remarkably frail compared to most other creatures, yet with it we have assumed mastery of the planet. Which is where the problems start.
It’s easy to argue that human technology is the root of all that ails the world today; there’s a lot of evidence pointing that way. But the answer is not to somehow do away with modern technology and rediscover some bygone Golden Age.
There never was any such Golden Age and it’s unlikely there ever will be. Anyone protesting against dumping garbage in landfill sites or flushing treated sewage out to sea, for example, really ought to consider what used to happen to the rubbish and shit before we did such things. No, it’s still not “right” but it beats scratching out a brief and miserable existence, ankle deep in piss and poo, before the inevitable terminal encounter with Cholera, or Typhus, or Plague.
Yes, technology helped create the mess we now face, but technology is also our only realistic hope of cleaning things up and moving forward to a better world. We have no other choice - without technology we are nothing and can achieve nothing. Technology defines us, it’s an expression of what we are - the nerdy dorks of the animal kingdom, compelled to use our clever brains to compensate for a woeful lack of brawn.
Some technologies that will help us along the way will be shiny and new, LED lighting for instance, while others such as wood burners have been with us for a very long time but have come to the fore in recent years as we seek sustainable, cost effective, low carbon solutions to modern energy needs.
The issues that “eco-technology” must address are well known: developing sustainable energy for example is obviously key to dealing with climate change. Yet at the same this all has to happen within the context of our modern society; some social phenomena such as online networks may prove helpful in mobilising mass engagement, though others such as the insidious emphasis on “self” suggest a new “age of unreason” where folklore and faith supplant science and sense and interesting times await.
So pick a link or dive into the tag cloud below…