[at-l] Windmills on tall buildings

[Jim Bullard]

2008/1/24 Ryan Crawford <m2b1 at earthlink.net>:

>  Here are two questions for you to think about:
>
> 1. Have we really made progress over the past century, or have we just
> been told we have made progress?  Is life any easier now than what it was
> when we lived without electricity?  Sure we can get around faster now, but
> do we really need to?  It all comes down to what you consider to be
> progress: truly simplifying life or giving new ways of making money off
> people.
>

Having lived a subsistence lifestyle without electricity, indoor plumbing,
etc. I feel qualified to say "yes, those things make life easier". I didn't
mind that lifestyle as a kid but then I wasn't responsible for keeping the
fires going, washing clothes in a tub, etc., etc. (I did have to fetch the
water from the well in pails) but once I became the adult responsible for
such things I appreciated having a pellet stove and a furnace that tended
themselves most of the time, water that flowed when I turned the tap, both
hot and cold. If you have no interests in life beyond merely sustaining your
existence you can still pursue that lifestyle. I have Amish neighbors who do
it, who work from before dawn to after sundown doing everything manually. I
prefer to have time to go walking, canoing, climb a mountain, take landscape
photographs, etc. YMMV

OTOH I believe we have gotten carried away with appliances and we waste too
much energy by leaving lights on in vacant rooms, running washers for one or
two items, using inefficient appliances/lights/etc. The fact that we abuse a
thing does not make it bad, it just means we have to learn to be more
judicious in our behavior.

-- 
Jim Bullard
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/
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