Is technological progress leaving life behind?

“Technology is a good slave but a bad master”

Articles are not written these days. They are more likely “marketed” to their target readership. The typical English newspaper is not the target readership for this article that I am about to share with you.

At the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where I studied nearly 15 years back, they do teach about the tale of two marketers who are both sent to a remote island where no one wears shoes. One of them comes back to report that it’s most unlikely that they shall ever buy shoes.

The other however sees a great opportunity in what she believes is a virgin market. With changing lifestyle and work routines, she pitches that each one of them is a potential customer now or later. That was an important lesson for me that I still steadfastly hold on to.

Another interesting thing happened a day after I sat to write down this article. An article titled “Techno-vision: Solving humanity’s grand challenges” (TOI, 18^th Aug.’13) written by Silicon Valley evangelist Mr. Vivek Wadhwa appeared in the press the next day. 

This is a grandstanding article that firstly portends a scenario where the only kind of water may be left to drink or for potable uses is sewage water and such yucky water which will be “Slingshot” for an initial price of a few thousand dollars and electricity cost of one kilowatt for 30 litres. He forgets to mention a likely annual maintenance cost and the fact that human beings do not consume sanitized distilled water but natural mineral water. There is certain extra costs to be incurred if any company were to provide water of the same composition as natural mineral water from natural sources, that’s been available for a long time before we began to rapidly pollute river and ground water a few decades or so back. This also varies every 20kms. according to geo-climatic conditions.

He cites several such examples of how “artificial meat” for burgers are going to be manufactured in laboratories, how solar energy is going to be dirt cheap and with similar such pipe dreams of unlimited “free” energy, food is soon going to be unlimited with the help of advances in medicine, 3-D printing, artificial intelligence, robotics, and other fields. He does mention that there will be some problems but fails to learn again and again and again that many of his techno-wizardry driven solutions may be worse than the problems that they are targeting at.

Mr. Wadhwa and the cottage industry of such techno-evangelists that he belongs to are a third kind of marketer, who presume that we are all born with two left feet and that too, these are feet of the same size for everyone on the island. This echoes Henry Ford’s “any color of car as long as it’s black” over a century back. Haven’t we moved on! 

  

Technology today has pervaded every walk of our life. Motor cars, smart phones, Hi-definition television sets, blue ray audio, automatic washing machines, pressure cookers, microwave, oven, toaster and grill, digital cameras – they are no longer merely status symbols. Life seems so difficult to imagine without several or even one of these in the hustle-bustle of city life. What came as a surprise is how they are making way into the rural areas, as I experienced in a village stay near Wardha in Maharashtra, a town where Gandhi started his experiments with Gram Udyog or Village Industries, 75 years back.

There are essentially two kinds of technologies. One is Wadhwa’s technology which is built on lies, cunning and videotapes. That’s conducted in the “Closed Source” confines of the office and the laboratory. This may be initially developed by entrepreneurs as Mr. Wadhwa is quick to point out, but is soon controlled by a handful of corporate in a remote location. The work is mostly done in uniform air-conditioned ambience that defies the wide diversity of geo-climatic conditions around the world. This also therefore leaves behind so much of “grey goo” that Mr. Wadhwa perils at, before he starts belting out another set of his techno-solutions that will create an even worse kind of grey goo and even faster. This may be lucrative for him but comes at a great cost to the humanity today and more so for our children and future generations.

The other is Gandhi’s technology on which the Gram Swaraj model is based. This is “Open Source” technology that’s built on truth, perseverance and a sharing of knowledge without any barriers. This will also be developed by entrepreneurs but not in the closed confines of the office and the laboratory, but in the open fields around the world with its diverse geo-climatic conditions. Unlike Wadhwa’s technology which seeks to first dirty and then purify water, Gandhi’s technology gets down to the field and assesses the sources of water pollution. The polluter must clean up the water before releasing it in the open. If it cannot it must close down.

Next, Gandhi’s technology seek to tap all natural sources of water including rainwater and explore ways of storing them so that they are available throughout the year. Ponds and wells are made at appropriate locations and of sizes guided by the topography of the place.

It even deploys practices such as reducing the use of water in washing in certain months, which coincides with the holiday season for the local washer-families. By keeping the village well a little away from the house block, it also developed camaraderie among the water carrying folks. The use of earthen pots also ensured that there is good handling of water besides their sanitizing properties, unlike plastic pots that are in use today. This also creates the market for the local potter-entrepreneur. In the winter months, water is stored in copper or brass pots which beneficiates the water in those seasons. Water is also stored in storage bags made of dead animal’s skin which was suitable for irrigation and even for drinking in some areas. This also created a market for the local cobbler-entrepreneur.

On the whole, clean natural mineral water with great quality and purity is made available throughout the year. This is strictly not sold even as its storage and upkeep generated plentiful of market for entrepreneurs who are paid in local currencies, in grains or other useful or aesthetic stuff that they may need. They didn’t have to ask for a return. People gift each other as honor and in dignity of their service for each other. The houses are designed in such a way that water is accessible to any passer-by who may need it.   

Wake up Mr. Wadhwa and all other techno-blinded folks and get your PET “mineral water” checked. It may be missing a statutory warning that water stored in plastic bottles for a length may be carcinogenic. In several tests they have even been found to be more contaminated than the local tap water. What else have you been drinking?   

Are we already so blinded by technology to see how Mr. Wadhwa’s “techno-vision” technology blinds us?

Chandra Vikash is a management consultant and social activist. He is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur and MBA from IIM Calcutta. He can be reached at chandra.vikash@gmail.com.

The “fully automatic” Washing Machine – Is it an overload?

In an era where future wars are proclaimed to be fought over water, the water-guzzling “fully automatic” washing machine should have been quite an anathema. Washing machines today could be using as much as 20litres of water per kg of clothes washed. Ask any housewife, however, and she would have countless tales of the drudgery of having to wash clothes manually. The washing machine does cut out the drudgery of washing clothes.

Before we delve into the merits or demerits of the washing machine, we must ponder over why our clothes get dirty so fast, how the volume of clothes could be minimised and spare some thoughts on our sartorial choices that lead to easy washability.

A big reason for clothes to get difficult-to-wash-off dirty is the pervasive presence of oily and sticky dust from vehicular emissions and  perennial road construction that mixes up with the roadside eroded soil and depleted green cover that absorbs some of this oily and sticky dust. In several areas oily and sticky dust emanates from industrial pollution such as coal-based thermal power plants and chemical plants.

A logical question to ask is whether we could minimize our exposure to such oily and sticky dust. Looking deeper, here we are both the perpetrator and the victims of this oily dust.

Imagine a scenario which is being presented world over as the new urbanism. In this model, most of our day to day activities are localized. So, the neighborhood serves as the school district, the work district and the shopping district. In such a scenario, why would we need oily and sticky dust emitting motor vehicles inside the neighborhood, with emission and dust coming off the tailpipes and the wheels respectively.

Wonder if there are no motor vehicle movements within the neighborhood district, why would we need space-guzzling tarmac roads. We could make way for much lighter roads with rainwater and drain-off channels alongside and which could be made of recycled materials – rubble from old, dilapidated buildings, plastic bags etc. They could also have thin film solar canvas on the top which apart from charging the low-powered, ultra-light Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, could also provide shed for pedestrians. To absorb even the minimal dust in this scenario, the green cover lining the streets will absorb them. In such a dust-free environment there is significantly lower chance of our clothes getting dirty and needing a wash that often as they need now.

Apart from wearable clothes there is also a large volume of bedsheets, pillow covers, curtains, doormats, carpets etc. that will require much less frequent cleaning in such a dust-free environment. At the same time, with the neighborhood as school and work district, we could also explore how more people could gainfully work out of their work studio as a part of the house or apartment building.

Going out and dressing up in such a scenario will be for special occasions of festivals and ceremonies rather than a daily ritual of dressing up for school or to office. The school routine should become considerable easier than the ordeal it’s today. With the neighborhood as school district, teachers should pick up younger students to walk them to a classroom which could at times be under a tree or besides a pond or river rather than being a boxed room every day. To ingrain children with a model morning routine, teachers could be visiting home with the sunrise and the children leave home with a pair of clothes. They are taught to brush their teeth with the twig of neem, babool or some such tree with healthy juices tricking into their tummy. They next go to a nearby pond or canal for a bathe where they also learn to wash their clothes. Children, rich and poor, wear ordinary clothes every day and dress up only on special occasions.

The simplified work routine also eliminates a separate pair of clothes for a far away office. Dressing up again is only for special occasions. Unlike the office and laboratory routine today, most people shall serve the local society and earn their livelihoods locally. Their dresses for a farmer or a cowherder, carpenter or cobbler, blacksmith or goldsmith could be designed suitably. The office and the laboratories would gradually convert into work studios in the house or on the fields for most people.

One such profession in this new urbanist neighborhood will be that of washermen. They shall have specialized washing practices and material to remove various kinds of dirt and stains. Do we need to pay them heftily ?

Not, at all. These washermen or dhobi community in a traditional set up are paid for their services with cooked food and the village neighborhood takes care of all their other needs. The lady of the household is considered as the Gram Putri or as the daughter of the village. She, thus doesn’t have to cook her own food while she is busy with her washing and drying work. In special ceremonies, such as after birth of a child in a village they are treated with special honour.

The washer community also is given special access to a pond or canal where they set up their equipments for washing and drying. They have their own folk music that they hum in tune with their washing chores.

The washer community is given access to land where they can set up their sun drying nets and beds. They also have access to their own transport which in a traditional set up would be a pony. This could be replaced with a solar-charged electric cart in today’s scenario.  This would also double up as their ironing board for clothes that need ironing. With such specialized skills and practices, we were dressed immaculately both on special occasions of festivities and ceremonies and also in our daily lives.     

In such a new urbanist model, every household will be able to access specialized washing services at their doorstep and shall not be loaded with the washing course. This also implies a far greater efficient use of scarce water.

What we wear widely varies across the country today and in urban and rural areas. One trend that’s prominent is the comeback of cotton and linen fabrics. Keeping the sanctity of our sartorial choices as a private affair, it’s worthwhile to comment that at times we seemed to be dressed for an overkill and are under dressed on other occasions. Men’s suits and tie in the warm climes seem pertly inappropriate. That’s a big reason why apart from water guzzlers, these sartorial choices lead to overuse of air-conditioners in numerous offices and guzzle power as well leading back to more of the oily and sticky dust.  

Chandra Vikash is a management consultant and social activist. He is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur and MBA from IIM Calcutta. He can be reached at chandra.vikash@gmail.com.