Add to Queue: Low-tech Magazine’s Offline Reading
A selection of curated media lists from our global community
words – kris de decker
location – barcelona, spain
Technology has become the idol of our society, but technological progress is – more often than not – aimed at solving problems caused by earlier technical inventions. There is a lot of potential in past and often forgotten knowledge and technologies when it comes to designing a sustainable society. Interesting possibilities arise when we combine old technology with new knowledge and new materials, or when we apply old concepts and traditional knowledge to modern technology.
“Low-tech” is not a noun but an adjective. The dictionary defines it as “not using the latest technologies,” while high-tech is defined as “using the latest technologies.” Consequently, a low-tech mindset is simply one that is critical about new technologies. It refuses to assume that a new technology is inherently better than the one it replaces. A low-tech approach also questions the criteria which make us decide whether or not something is “better” than something else.
Low-tech Magazine was founded in November 2007. Since 2018, the magazine also runs on a solar powered server. In 2023, we also launched a thematic book series, with four volumes now available. Below, we cover them each in detail – providing a selection of offline reading to be enjoyed, pondered and shared regardless of your broadband speed, laptop capability or connection to a power supply.
01_How Circular is the Circular Economy?
The circular economy – the newest magical word in the sustainable development vocabulary – promises economic growth without environmental destruction or waste. However, growth makes a circular economy impossible, even if we recycle all raw materials and all recycling is 100% efficient. No technology can change that because it’s not a technological problem. In addition, many modern products are too complex to recycle. In this series of articles, we explore how the circularity of various technologies like bicycles, solar panels and wind turbines evolves. Placing the recycling of resources in a historical context makes clear that we are not moving toward a circular economy but rather, increasingly, away from it.
02_Heating People Not Spaces
These days, we provide thermal comfort in winter by heating the entire air volume in a room or building, an approach that consumes a lot of fossil fuels. In this series of articles, LOW←TECH MAGAZINE focuses on our forebear’s concept of heating, which was more localised. They used radiant heat sources that warmed only certain parts of a room, creating micro-climates of comfort, and they used personal heating sources that warmed specific body parts. It would make a lot of sense to restore this old way of warming, especially since newer technology has made it much more practical, safe and efficient. By placing heating technology in a historical context, we challenge the high-tech approach to sustainability and highlight the possibilities of alternative solutions.
03_How to Downsize a Transport Network?
Fast and cheap transportation props up industrial societies, both for the moving of people and cargo. However, our transport networks are very wasteful of energy and utterly dependent on fossil fuels. In this series of articles, we critically examine the call for electrified vehicles, which depend on unsustainable batteries and infrastructures. Much more important than the chosen power source is vehicle design: size, weight, speed, acceleration and comfort level. Furthermore, public transport is more resource efficient, and we could electrify it without batteries. The book’s second part deals with long-distance transportation: planes, trains, sailing ships and ocean liners. By placing transportation technology in a historical context, we challenge our high-tech approach to sustainability and highlight the possibilities of alternative solutions.
04_How To Build a Low-tech Internet?
We were told that the internet would dematerialise society and decrease energy use. Contrary to this projection, it has become a massive infrastructure and a rapidly growing energy consumer. In this series of articles, we examine the reasons behind the ever-expanding resource use of digital communication and what we can do about it. The internet isn’t an autonomous being; its growing energy use results from decisions made by software developers, web designers, marketeers, publishers and internet users. At Low-tech, by placing communications in a historical context and with the development of our lightweight, off-the-grid and solar powered website, we challenge our high-tech approach to sustainability and highlight the possibilities of alternative solutions.
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A note: We regularly update our site as part of our efforts to reduce the environmental impact of our digital estate. The global emissions from the digital industry are on a par with those from the aviation industry, at almost 2% of total global emissions. What’s worse, this is increasing year on year. In an effort to lessen our impact, we regularly compress and archive previous features as we update our site with new content – something we consider best practice and hope to see more of across the industry. For further information, feel free to get in touch.