We live in uncertain times. Never before has a species had such a devastating impact on Earth. First through potential nuclear armageddon, now through human-made climate breakdown. Similarly, many innovations and technologies have made us more connected than ever, but we are equally more separate and disconnected. Finally, not only our natural climate but equally so our political and scientific climate are on fire. What to do?
It is exactly in these uncertain times, changing times, that we might dare to dream collectively, together, on how we might move beyond the current mess we have found ourselves in. It is time to stage the revolution and commit ourselves to a more equitable world that respects planetary boundaries, embraces biodiversity, energy, water, wellbeing, society, and culture.
In this talk I will look at the role that technology plays, and could play in, making such dreams a reality, and how new tools and paradigms developed under the moniker of the makers movement and maker spaces, open-source and low tech have the potential to remake the shaky ground (physical, conceptual — dare I say — ontological) on which we stand.
Can technology, AI, the internet, open-source software and hardware really be of much help here? And why are anthropologists and engineers uniquely positioned to help? Let’s find out!
https://www.anthtechconf.co.uk/keynote/roelof-pieters
10. 580 GtCO2
420 GtCO2
330* GtCO2
280* GtCO2
180* GtCO2
130* GtCO2
Data source: IPCC SR15
*: own linear projections from SR15
Remaining carbon budgets from 2018
for chance of avoiding 1.5C warming.
13. Drinking water from sun & air graphene/perovskite solar cells
(sun & rain) (flexible/transparent)
Multi spectral cells
Salt storage Kinetic storage
Redox flow batteries
Printed batteries
34. 1
billion
people without
access to
electricity
globally1
740
million
est. people
expected to gain
access to
electricity from
off-grid solar by
20225
~2+
billion
people without
access to
reliable
electricity
globally7
urces: 1 World Energy Outlook (IEA, 2018); 2 The Transformations of Power (Wood Mackenzie, 2017); 3 Energy Access Outlook (IEA, 2017); 4 Energizing Finance: Understanding the Landscape (SE4ALL, 2018); 5 O
hting Global, 2018); 6 Scaling Up Energy Access through Cross-sector Partnerships (PWC, 2013); 7Energy Poverty Factbook (AT Kearney, 2018)
400
million
people gained
access to
electricity from
off-grid solar
solutions from
2010-20173
$37
billion
USD est. annual
spend by low-
income
customers on
basic energy
needs globally6
pe
est.
new
conne
off-gr
grid so
2
$624
billion
USD est. total
capital outlay
required to
reach universal
energy access
by 20304
38. Results of survey of OGS companies on highest potential productive use appliances
(Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2018, January 2018,
International Finance Corporation, GOGLA, Lighting Global )
39. Results of survey of OGS companies on highest potential productive use appliances
(Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2018, January 2018,
International Finance Corporation, GOGLA, Lighting Global )
“market opportunities”
“investment opportunities”
“new markets”
“value stacking added services”
40.
41. Results of survey of OGS companies on highest potential productive use appliances
(Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2018, January 2018,
International Finance Corporation, GOGLA, Lighting Global )
42. Results of survey of OGS companies on highest potential productive use appliances
(Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2018, January 2018,
International Finance Corporation, GOGLA, Lighting Global )
87. “Life-centric”
Life Centred Design: contributing to all living systems in a
way that not only “does no harm” but actively helps them
survive and thrive.
— Cassie Robinson, Beyond human-centred design, to?
More-than-human centred Design: “growing in a new way
where we add health and vitality to the places that we all
share.”
— John Thackara, Good Growth
88. Life I claim that this quality is not merely the
basis for a distinction between beautiful things
and ugly things. It is something which is
detectable as a subtle distinction, in every
corner of the world, as we walk about, in the
most ordinary places, during the most ordinary
events. It is a quality which changes from place
to place and from moment to moment, and
which marks, in varying degrees, every
moment, every event, every point in space.
— Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order
vol I: The Phenomenon of Life
121. “There are no computer models, no satellites,
no radars, no hockey stick graphs that can
help us chart our way toward the kind of
civilisations we urgently need to build.
We have to do that work together.”
— @EricHolthaus
122. A manifesto for open making
1. open (“free")
2. easy to start (low barriers)
3. simple (low-tech!)
4. together / collective / playful
5. thoughtful / life-centric
6. modular / remixable
7. locally producible
8. reusable / circular / recyclable / sustainable
9. affordable / appropriate
10.community oriented empowerment
Design should be:
143. A manifesto for open making
1. open
2. easy to start
3. simple / “low tech"
4. together
5. thoughtful / “life-full”
6. modular & remixable
7. locally producible
8. reusable and recyclable
9. affordable & appropriate
10.community & empowerment
Design should be:
√
√
?
√
√
√
√
?
?
?
√√
√
√
144. GreenSolutions
• Open Source
• Collaborative
• Decentralised Design
• Local Manufacturing
A Public Repository and Community
For Open Sustainable Design
http://greensolutions.cc
Sign up for the mailing list for updates / help out!
Roelof Pieters
roelof@sunshinelab.com
145. When: Tomorrow 4 Oct
Time: 9:00-15:00*
Where: TBD
Who: anyone who wants
to come, meet, talk,
mingle
unconference = participant-driven meetings, sessions, workshops: creates
space for peer-to-peer learning, collaboration and creativity.
A Get-together for
Climate Unconference
Sign up at greensolutions.cc and we’ll send you
the address this evening :)