Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Problem solving: elevator story

[Racheli Gai (jnpalme]

Hi Sara,

I don't really wish to get right now into an argument over technology, 
but just wanted to point out that permaculture is *not* new, except by
name. There are many examples of its use way before the appearance
of Bill Mollison.
For good examples read Vandana Shiva's "monocultures of the Mind",
"biopiracy" and other books.

R.

>At 04:41 PM 7/17/02, you wrote:
>>In the shorter term: You'd rather run cables all over the planet than
>>have a few communications satellites at a tiny fraction of the cost?
>>What a waste of copper and glass ...

>Exactly.  Plus, it's feasible to create a solar power satellite that
>could  generate a huge amount of power...as in enough for the power use
>of all of  North America.  No more coal or oil burning plants that create
>smog,  hydroelectric dams that disrupt ecosystems, or nuclear power
>plants.  I'm  sure a solar power satellite would have its own
>issues...but there's the  principle of **least impact**  Individual solar
>setups are good, but don't  work for everyone.

>Plus, the space program has given huge payoffs in terms of advances in 
>knowledge of medicine and computers, just to name two areas.  If NASA
>were  allowed to collect even a percentage of all the money that has been
> generated by its research, it would be one of the few government
>agencies  that pays for itself **even** with the staggering cost of doing
>anything in  space.

>Humans are tool-using, that is to say technological, creatures; tool use 
>among hominids is a good bit older than our species, in fact.  The
>question  is, what tools? and how?  Low-tech does not equal ecologically
>sound;  slash-and-burn agriculture is as low-tech as you get.  High-tech
>does not  equal  ecologically damaging, either.  Permaculture, and indeed
>cohousing,  are **new** technologies; they are based on older models,
>some many  thousands of years old, but then so are the latest weapons. 
>What makes a  technology good or bad are the values it expresses, not its
>level of  sophistication or its relative age.  As technological
>applications go, the  space program...at least the exploring/scientific
>aspect of it...is pretty  beneficial.

>Sara the technopagan...

>Never does Nature say one thing and wisdom another.  --Juvenal, 50-130
>C.E.

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-- 
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jnpalme [at] attglobal.net (Racheli Gai)
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