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Ian Coldwater ๐Ÿ“ฆ๐Ÿ’ฅ's posts Post Back to profile
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Nicole Parsons

@ian

Disagree.

The mass manufacture of the bicycle had an impact on women's civil rights.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycl

Ditto the mass manufacture of home appliances like the vacuum cleaner, washer & dryer, and fridge & electric stove.
penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/03

Public infrastructure for clean water, sewage treatment plants, and railways and public transit.
adb.org/publications/water-and
sciencedirect.com/science/arti
healingwaters.org/can-access-t

Technology does solve cultural and societal problems.

11 June at 19:20 | Wall-to-wall | Open on mstdn.social
19 comments
Social Diaspora Bard

@Npars01 @ian I'd argue that there had to be a certain amount of cultural change to drive those inventions and their manufacture and adoption, though. After all, even the printing press was controversial in its time. Had there not been an existing push toward literacy for commoners, for instance, it wouldn't have happened. Necessity is theoretically the mother of invention, but the people in charge still have to decide whether the need actually exists.

11 June at 21:50 | Open on retro.pizza
:labrys-chaostar: ร˜therwร˜rlder :labrys-chaostar:
@Npars01 @ian none of those things ended the problems they are in response to
12 June at 1:26 | Open on social.xenofem.me
Howlin' Hobbit

@Npars01 @ian

holy smokes, @moira

have you seen this Wikipedia article?

12 June at 20:50 | Open on musicians.today
Kevin Russell

@Npars01 @ian

๐Ÿ‘ Very very good points. .

12 June at 21:02 | Open on mstdn.social
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@Npars01 @ian I think you're putting the teleological horse behind the cart there.

Inventions don't come out of a vacuum. They come out of need ... and needs are cultural.

I'm old enough that my grandmother lived through the home appliance revolution. People didn't invent home appliances because they wanted to change society. Home appliances were invented (and their mass production further invented) because there was a *demand* for something that gave women leisure/professional time.

13 June at 0:29 | Open on mastodon.online
Nicole Parsons

@zdl @ian

Disagree.

Inventions do arise from need, but also nothing was done about this need for home appliances for centuries.

Women sweated over laundry, & hot fireplaces cooking until... a federal program for electrification in rural areas & home appliances demand could begin.

The electrification project was a jobs program during the Great Depression.

& brought access to the radio, another technology solution for a social problem; communications in a democracy

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_

@zdl @ian

Disagree.

Inventions do arise from need, but also nothing was done about this need for home appliances for centuries.

Women sweated over laundry, & hot fireplaces cooking until... a federal program for electrification in rural areas & home appliances demand could begin.

The electrification project was a jobs program during the Great Depression.

13 June at 0:43 | Open on mstdn.social
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@Npars01 @ian You're ... kinda proving my point here?

Nothing was done for centuries because the culture didn't value the freeing of women from the daily grind. The ability to technologically make life easier for women predates the actual making life easier by easily a century.

It took women hitting the work force in WWII and then not wanting to go back to the idiotic daily grind to finally effect the sea change needed for the technology (which was already possible!) to be mass produced.

13 June at 0:51 | Open on mastodon.online
Nicole Parsons

@zdl @ian

Check the dates.

Rural electrification happened in 1936.

WW2 started December 7, 1941 for the USA.

A government program created the prerequisites to meet a need.

Government support often greases the wheels of progress.

13 June at 0:53 | Open on mstdn.social
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@Npars01 @ian When did mass production of vacuum cleaners automated washing machines and other such labour-saving devices start?

AFAIK the fully automated washing machineโ€”the kind that didn't have wringers (like my mother's) and other things that required you to stand there and babysit the washingโ€”was sometime in the late '40s or early '50s even. That was one of the greatest free time makers.

๐Ÿงต (1/2)

13 June at 0:59 | Open on mastodon.online
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@Npars01 @ian
Same with vacuum cleaners. They were luxury devices only until after WWII where they started to appear in middle class homes en masse. (Hell, before the 1930s they were massive machines driven house to house in wealthy neighbourhoods to clean them!)

In both cases it was the newfound desire for women to be freed from drudgery that drove the introduction of and/or mass production of genuine labour-saving devices. A societal change drove technological innovation, in short.

๐Ÿงต (2/2)

@Npars01 @ian
Same with vacuum cleaners. They were luxury devices only until after WWII where they started to appear in middle class homes en masse. (Hell, before the 1930s they were massive machines driven house to house in wealthy neighbourhoods to clean them!)

In both cases it was the newfound desire for women to be freed from drudgery that drove the introduction of and/or mass production of genuine labour-saving devices. A societal change drove technological innovation, in short.

13 June at 1:01 | Open on mastodon.online
Yakyu Night Owl

@Npars01 @zdl @ian *whispering* Without rural electrification, they can't use the manufacturing base established by the war to make appliances.

The demand was by factories that had to pivot to peacetime products. Women couldn't get a credit card without a husband co-signing when I was growing up, so it really wasn't driven by financial liberation.

This is how we ended up with gadgets like microwave ovens made of parts developed for the military. It was an eager industry. Not real empowerment.

13 June at 1:00 | Open on mastodon.world
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@YakyuNightOwl @Npars01 @ian So you're saying the technological accomplishment of rural electrification was driven by ... *gasp* ... SOCIAL NEEDS!?

Say it ain't so! ๐Ÿ˜†

13 June at 1:03 | Open on mastodon.online
Yakyu Night Owl

@zdl @Npars01 @ian It was driven by a whole lot of factors. Not the least of which was making sure people could do basic things like pump out floodwaters, or pump water to a home, or run a dairy farm with milking machines, or listen to the radio.

It allowed manufacturing to take advantage of low pay in rural places. Textiles in the southern US were assisted a lot by rural electrification. Again, it was driven more by potential industry gains than any sort of social revolution.

Depression Era.

13 June at 1:10 | Open on mastodon.world
๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณๅผ ๆฎฟๆŽ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@YakyuNightOwl @Npars01 @ian The need to pump out flood waters is a technological need solved socially, or a social need solved technologically?

I know in this world where people make stupid shit like Bitcoin leads one to believe that technology is made in search of a problem to solve with it, but really, technology is made in response to social needs. Only the computer world is filled with people foolish enough to think otherwise.

13 June at 1:17 | Open on mastodon.online
Nicole Parsons

@zdl @YakyuNightOwl @ian

Cryptocurrency was brought into being for a number of reasons. It's a scam with national security implications.

1. Tax evasion
voanews.com/a/nigeria-sues-cry
washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/20

2. Money laundering
economist.com/by-invitation/20
icij.org/investigations/fincen

3. Supplant the US dollar as the global reserve currency
bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

4. Threat funding
bushcenter.org/publications/th
cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/free
unodc.org/roseap/en/2024/casin

5. Straw donor schemes
fortune.com/crypto/2023/10/16/

@zdl @YakyuNightOwl @ian

Cryptocurrency was brought into being for a number of reasons. It's a scam with national security implications.

1. Tax evasion
voanews.com/a/nigeria-sues-cry
washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/20

13 June at 1:31 | Open on mstdn.social
Nicole Parsons

@zdl @YakyuNightOwl @ian

I'm saying that what triggers technological innovation isn't cut-&-dried. Need is only part of it

The impact of technological innovation is often serendipitous & has unexpected side effects on the social

Rural electrification was a jobs program, not a "let's goose the home appliances industry & help women" program.

Its benefits to women was not the primary consideration at the time

Nevertheless, it was a technological solution to a social issue, almost by accident

13 June at 1:18 | Open on mstdn.social
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