DES 40A

• What is History?


  -An incomplete narrative that recounts what happened before

  -Often told from the narrarator's perspective

  -Often implies bigger worldview frameworks, for example:

  -Classical, Christian, Marxist, Scientific, Indigenous
• What is "World Making"?

  -Conceptual

  - Temporal

  - Transformative Process

  - Physical / Material / Energetic

  - Environmental

  - Social, Political
• Three different examples of the philosophy of technology:

  -Western culture (from the ancient Greeks through Europe to US)

  
  

  - China - story of Pao Ding (aka Guo Xiang, or Cook Ting), the butcher and his knife

  In China, the philosophy of technology is tied to the unity of the relation between the tool ("Qui") and intuition/seeking above the form ("Dao")

  
  

  - Zimbabwe - low-shaft iron furnaces
• What has created the climate crisis the world is experiencing today?


  -value of innovation → believing there is always something better to create (ego)

  -convenience → privilege

  -outdated regulations /policies

  -lack/ misinformation

  - individual selfishness

  - competition to be the best

  - science is becoming political
• Pluriversal


  a world where many worlds are possible
• "Pluriversal design"


  as tool for different types of world making
• Universal Approach to Technology & World-Making (global capitalism, "development")


  has brought us to the global crises we face today.
• Pluriversal Approach to Technology & World-Making


  offers new constructive ways of envisioning and making our futures.
• Energy


  the capacity to perform work; types include heat, chemical, mechanical/kinetic, light, electrical, and potential energy (standard unit of measure is a "joule")
• Work


  the integral of force over a distance of displacement (or generally, the product of force times distance) (a unit of force is measured in "newtons")
• Power


  the rate at which energy is generated or used, or time rate at which work is done (standard unit measure is the "watt" or "joule/second")
• Prime mover


  primary means of generating power (animate vs inanimate)
• Secondary energy (e.g. electricity)


  is the output of processed primary energy (steam turbogenerators in the US are still about 40% efficient, meaning you need 2.5x more of the primary energy source to produce its output as electricity... so if you know how much electricity your cell phone takes to charge, the actual amount of primary energy that requires is much greater.)
• Embodied energy


  the total cumulative amount of energy consumed in the full life cycle of something
• Life cycle


  The life of a product from when the materials it is made of first are extracted and processed for its production through its use and afterlife (whether recycled or thrown away), so... the life of a product from when it comes out of the ground, until it goes back into the ground. Usually life cycle assessments involved consideration of the raw materials, the embodied energy, and the wastes and byproducts used and produced through the entire cycle.
• Primary Fuels / Primary Sources of Energy


  Renewable vs nonrenewable
• What is the energy-civilization equation?


  It is the idea that the more energy a culture expends, the more "civilized" or "advanced" it is.
• Embodied Energy


  is an accounting method which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product life-cycle. Determining what constitutes this life-cycle includes assessing the relevance and extent of energy into raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, dis-assembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition as well as human and secondary resources.
• gravitational energy


  potential energy associated with attraction of two masses to each other
• nuclear energy


  The sun
• electromagnetic energy


  solar, radiant energy
• thermal energy


  heat, atmospheric and oceanic absorption of light/solar energy
• geothermal energy


  gravity + radioactive decay inside earth
• chemical energy


  plant photosynthesis, foods, animal metabolism, biomass, fossil fuels
• mechanical/kinetic energy


  wind, water, motion
• electrical energy


  energy available through flow of charge through conductor
• Energy Conversion


  - No energy is "lost" in conversion (principle of conservation of energy), but its potential for useful work is reduced (principle of entropy)

  - Humans convert external sources of energy through

  o employing prime movers (what are key prime movers across time?)

  o use of tools to make things (* history of technology and its design outcomes)
• General matrix of energy conversions:


  - Kinetic

  - Heat

  -chemical - kinetic - mechanical

  -thermal

  -gravitational
• Stone Age- 3.4 Million years ago to 4500-2000 BCE


  Energy Sources: Sun, Food, Biomass/Wood/Fire

  Prime Movers: Humans and some animals (horses c. 4000 BCE)

  Primary Materials: Stone, Wood, Bone, Shell, Teeth, Fibers, Clay

  Production Processes: Carving, Sawing, Cutting, Twisting, Weaving
• Bronze Age: begins 5000 BCE to 3300 BCE


  Energy Sources: main one: charcoal!

  Prime Movers: Humans and animals

  Primary Materials: copper + arsenic or tin = bronze

  Production Processes: cupellation for refinement (blast of air to remove impurities - 2500 BCE)

  Copper+ Tin Melting Point: approx 1000 degrees
• Iron Age: 1500 BCE-present, independently in Africa and the Middle East


  Energy Sources: more charcoal!

  Process: many, since the iron age continues for a long time (til now!) - but for a long time, blacksmiths hammered iron on charcoal to make steel (cementation) until the hotter blast furnaces of the Middle Ages; steel also has to be quenched/cooled and tempered

  Primary Materials: Iron, lead, (steel = iron + carbon)

  Production Processes:

  Melting Point of Iron: 1535 degrees Celsius (but charcoal fires didn't get this hot, so...???!!!)
• Chalcolithic Period (Copper + Stone) - 4,500-3,500 BCE


  Energy Sources: Sun, food, biomass/wood/fire, charcoal

  Prime Movers: Humans and animals

  Primary Materials: copper (but no tin yet), silver and gold

  New Method: Hammering + anvil, Casting in Moulds

  Copper Melting Point: 1083 degrees Celsius
• Scale, Pace and Power


  A comparison of designs from the present and the past to kickstart our discussion on this theme:

  Materials and production process are inseparable from the product. Material resources, power & technology drive design.
• Humans


  Source of Energy:

  - Food calories - hunting and gathering (throwing spears doubles velocity); agriculture (ultimate energy source is sun into food/chemical energy via photosynthesis and metabolism); accompanied by need for food storage

  - Fire (burning biomass: wood, charcoal, dung)

  - Energy outputs?

  How to augment human power?

  Mechanical devices (lever, wedge, screw, wheel + axle, gears, pulleys, springs)
• Levers


  "a small force acting through a long distance is transformed into a great force acting through a short distance" (ex: pliers, wheelbarrows, rowing oars)
• Wheel and axles are circular levers


  "a small force at the circumference is transformed into a large force near the center" (treadmills are example too) (first wheel 3200 BC, Uruk?)
• Wedges and screws


  "mechanical advantage of an inclined plane is equal to the quotient of the length of its slope and its vertical height"; "screws are circular inclined planes"; "wedges are double inclined planes" (ramps and slopes are inclined planes)
• Compound pulleys


  force required to lift an object is nearly inversely proportional to the number of deployed pulleys
• Devices for combining the power of multiple individuals (multiple small forces) for a particular task.


  - Ropes and straps

  - Harnesses and yokes

  - Swingletrees
• gears


  Transferring power from one place/direction to another place/direction