[Greenbuilding] interesting info re what systems are we living with today that were designed for the past....

[Reuben Deumling]

a weird list.


   - "modern plumbing"

flush toilets are highly problematic. o.k. But we also lived for millennia
before flush toilets though, so picking on indoor plumbing is really a more
particular concern than simply 'old is obsolete.'


   - The width between train rails

yeah, so? This is a favorite story and fun to tell, but standards are
everywhere. We happen to know how to trace this one further back than most
but that doesn't really fit in this list at all because the author didn't
even mention any reason why a different gauge would be 'better' or how we
might measure 'better.'


   - The sizes, shape and locations of windows

a bit more specific example would be helpful. In fact we still use studs so
I'm not sure what developments he has in mind that would now permit more
glazing per square foot.


   - Cars have 12v power connections in the cabin, they are still based on
   old car cigarette lighters, despite very few people using such a lighter
   anymore.

yeah, so? Really reaching here. Cigarette lighters are vestigial but so are
about a thousand other things. Audi marketers thought the openable hood was
vestigial so they got rid of that. Interesting but hardly worth getting too
excited over. Or the QWERTY keyboard. Hey, how could he miss that one?


   - Most television remotes have dozens of buttons,

same could be said for the TV, no? Why have a TV at all when we have the
internet.


   - Money is still printed on paper and stamped with coins,

you want to talk about money, about what works and doesn't work? The
physicality of money seems a funny target. How about derivatives, shadow
banking, the revolving door between Goldman Sachs and the regulatory
institutions. Oh, but those are all newfangled and so explode the old is
obsolete framing. Never mind.


For a more expansive take on this issue I recommend Edward Tenner's* Why
Things Bite Back*, or Donald Norman's *The Design of Everyday Things.*


On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 5:05 PM, Sacie Lambertson <sacie.lambertson at gmail.com
> wrote:

>
>
> http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-systems-we-live-with-today-that-were-designed-for-a-world-of-the-past#ans903979
>
> _______________________________________________
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