Technologies of the Past
TECHNOSPHERES
Hunting Gathering Societies
Hunting Gathering Societies
Energy sources: human muscle power, fire
Total energy use: 2,000-5000 kcal / person / day
(mostly from diet)
World population: less than 1 million people
Life expectancy: ~ 30 years
Social grouping: communal ~50 individuals, nomadic
Food sources: fruits, seeds, berries, wild animals
(subsistence)
Material culture: stone (Paleolithic), bone, leather, fur
Environmental problems: related to basic survival,
extreme vulnerability to predators, natural disasters,
environmental changes
Agricultural Societies
The Gleaners - 1857, Jean-François Millet
Agricultural Societies
Energy sources: animal power, water power, wind, fire
Total energy use: 12,000-20,000 kcal / person / day
World population: growing to 500 million by 1500 AD
Life expectancy: ~ 35 years
Social grouping: villages, towns, cities -- sedentary
Food sources: domesticated crops and animals
Material culture: (Neolithic) bronze, iron, wood, wool,
leather, accumulation of goods
Cultural products: writing, mathematics, astronomy,
philosophy, religions
Social problems: centralization of power, war, slavery
Environmental problems: disease, pestilence, overgrazing,
desertification, overshoot and collapse
Industrial Societies
LATE
Industrial Societies
EARLY
LATE
Life expectancy:
charcoal, coal
60,000
1 billion - 1850
2 billion – 1945
~ 45 years in 1900
Material culture:
iron and steel
oil, nuclear
230,000 (U.S.)
4 billion - 1975
8 billion - 2017
~ 60 in 1990
~ 75 in U.S.
aluminum, plastics
disposables
Energy sources:
Energy use (kcal/p/d):
World population:
mass
production
mass
consumption
LATE INDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES
Social grouping:
increasingly urban with vastly more
international travel, breakdown of tribal and family groups.
Food sources: Increasingly processed, mass produced, and
marketed. Humanity separated from the land; genetically
engineered crops.
Cultural products: Techno-science, info-tainment, individualism.
Social problems: Haves and have-nots, total industrial war, racial
& ethnic hatreds.
Environ. problems: Urban air and water pollution, deforestation,
increasingly toxic wastes, regional and global pollution, threats to
ozone and oceans.
World rate of population growth: 3 per second, 10,000 per class
period, 250,000 per day, 1.8 million per week, 100 million per year,
1 billion per decade.
ERA
ENERGY
MATERIALS
ARTIFACTS
METAPHOR
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Paleolithic
Muscle
Stone/Bone
Stone tools
Survival
40,000-10,000 BC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Eotechnic
or Neolithic
Water
Metals
Clipper Ship
Agriculture
10,000 BC Wind
Wood
Water Wheel
Artisans
-1750 AD
Animals
Cloth/ Leather
Violin
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Paleotechnic
Steam
Coal
Railroads
Industry
1750-1930
Steel
Factories
Pollution
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Neotechnic
Electricity
Aluminum
Automobiles
High-tech
1930-2000
Oil
Plastics
Airplanes
Toxics
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ecotechnic
21st C?
Renewable
Solar/ Wind
Recyclable
Biodegradable
Adapted from Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization(1934).
Less is more
Sustainabilty
Eo-Technic Era
Industrial Societies
EARLY
Paleo-Technic Era
Neo-Technic Era
Going beyond Mumford:
Eco-Technic* Era?
*The term “Eco-technic” implies that humans will always engage in technological
innovation, yet we must always live within an ecosystem.
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Eco-technic?
Bio-technic?
Nano-technic?
Cyber-technic?
Geo-technic?
Geotechnic ?