AIDG Blog [Appropriate Technology, Development, Environment]

The answer is emphatically NO! I decided to write this entry because my best friend called me out today for using appropriate technology and low-technology interchangeably throughout this blog. I’m so embarrassed, but I am here today to set the record straight 1st with some neat examples from AIDG and other organizations and 2nd with a concise discussion of the philosophy of AT. If you have any other examples that you know about, we’d love to hear them.

First with the examples.

• I wrote the other day about how XelaTeco produces their own high quality printed circuit boards MacGyver-style using a clothes iron, a laser printer, photo paper and more. The PCBs are used to make a critical piece of the micro-hydroelectric system: the ballast load controller which prevents the generator from overspinning.
• The NGO Light Up the World uses solid state lighting in the form of high efficiency LEDs (Luxeon WLEDs) to provide low-cost and environmentally responsible lighting to people from Costa Rica to Sri Lanka who do not have access. LEDs “exploit the quirky laws of quantum physics to transform electrons directly into photons of light, without heat”. Those little things that power your digital clocks, watch lights and head lamps are basically simple semiconductor devices and they recently got a whole a lot brighter. (Let me pause here and say: Science is so cool.) I will be writing more about LEDs in the future as AIDG is interested in exploring the technology.
• First Mile Solutions collaborates with other NGOs to bring internet and communications to people living in isolated rural villages. For their project in Ritamkiri, Cambodia for example, Internet “Motomen” riding their cherry red Honda motorcycles are a “digital pony express”. The bikes, equipped with FMS Mobile Access Points and a 256 Kb/s Satellite uplink, do slow drivebys past the local school to collect and deliver email messages and search engine queries over wi-fi.

These three examples of printed circuit boards, LED lighting, and wireless internet are anything but low-tech. They instead show how technology can be used in innovative ways to solve problems in the presence of resource/material constraints.

There are many definitions of appropriate technology and much debate over what qualifies as AT in a given situation. The AIDG sees AT as the most affordable, most environmentally friendly technology that we can create to fulfill a specific purpose (e.g. water purification or electricity generation) given the material constraints of a location/region that we are based in. It needs to be locally repairable as well as acceptable to the community who is going to be using it. That last should be a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by how often it is forgotten.

At AIDG, we don’t make a distinction between hi-tech and low-tech when thinking about our technologies. Rather, the most important questions are 1) It is affordable enough? 2) Can replacement parts be obtained easily enough? 3) Does it fulfill the need of the enduser? 4) Is it environmentally sound? Hi-tech or low-tech, those are the things that matter the most.

Other links of interest:
Light Up the World
First Mile Solutions

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