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Top-level
 @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 comments
@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.  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. @Npars01 @ian When did mass production of vacuum cleaners automated washing machines and other such labour-saving devices start? AFAIK the fully automated washing machineโthe kind that didn't have wringers (like my mother's) and other things that required you to stand there and babysit the washingโwas sometime in the late '40s or early '50s even. That was one of the greatest free time makers. ๐งต (1/2)  @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. @YakyuNightOwl @Npars01 @ian So you're saying the technological accomplishment of rural electrification was driven by ... *gasp* ... SOCIAL NEEDS!? Say it ain't so! ๐ @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. @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. 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  @Npars01 @zdl @YakyuNightOwl@mastodon.world @ian I agree with Nicole. Culture and technology feed each other. https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-technology-affects-global-local-cultures.html :mastodon: |
Gregory's Server
@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
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_Electrification_Act
@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.