Familie van de Nachtschade

Retro-engineering and transparent technology

Geschreven door Erik Dangerfield donderdag, 19 februari 2009 12:44

Erik Dangerfield is our first international blogger. He is a writer who has covered environmental issues and the intersection of technology and development (particularly in africa). He travels extensively and has some knowledge of vehicle mechanics, piloting aeroplanes, geographical information systems, social development, wildlife conservation and quantitative research. Read more of his blogs here.

This is a short post, really just a few notes on something that I have been thinking about for some time. Nachtschade has an inherent forward momentum about it – a need to express the world as we see it through digital means. However, look a little deeper and you will find that most of the family members are artisans too. People who learn to use their tools well, keep them honed, and understand their working. In short they are interested in the technology, the process as well as the output.

I mention this because I see two distinct user-groups of technology on the web. One that “reverse engineers”, or “deconstructs” the products they encounter on the web, and another that make use of web technology as an invisible tool to get to their endpoint (so-called “transparent technology’).

“ adjective Referring to a process that can be incorporated into one's lifestyle or profession in a seamless fashion, such that the user requires virtually no special expertise to use the technology. Cf User-friendly Vox populi Invisible.” McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The distinction is self-evident, but nevertheless important. Sitting in rush-hour traffic, delighting in the delicate boquet of carbon monoxide I wonder to myself how much I really understand about the technology I use every day. And I realize that some of the most creative friends I have are retro-engineers: programmers, web technologists, self-taught engineers, steampunkists, life-hackers and deconstructors in general.

Our relationship with technology goes back. Way back. If you don’t believe me, have a look at the antikythera mechanism.

This is, essentially, an analog computer for calculating planetary movements. It was built somewhere around 100 BC, probably in Greece, almost a millennium before any technology came close to duplicating its level of complexity and precision. The intricate geared mechanism was apparently so sophisticated that it would have been able to deal with the faster or slower movement of the moon (that has an elliptical orbit around the earth). My own fascination with the machine aside, its an illustration of the work of someone who knew in great detail what he or she was working with, and would often have had to work from first principles that related to the perceived astronomy of the time. An engineer. At the same time, the users of this device may have had no understanding of its mechanism whatsoever (it being so far ahead of any other technology known at the time) – and to them the technology would have certainly been transparent.

Do you understand how your world revolves? How does your phone actually work? How does your laptop perform tasks that required a room full of computers in the 1960’s?

Circuit board for a laptop, cellphone.

As a parting shot, I’d like to draw your attention to a particularly good article about the Amish and their attitude toward technology. The author first of all corrected much of my ignorance of what the Amish believe and do, then illustrated very succinctly that actually, one chooses the technology that one uses. The Amish choose some technology, but not others. Most often this is related to religious belief (but not always). I draw great inspiration from their ability to understand and retro-engineer technology to suit their needs.

Ultimately what we need in society, both offline and online.

Till next time,
Erik

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