{"id":383,"date":"2025-05-12T12:30:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T12:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tha.de\/honors\/2025\/?p=383"},"modified":"2025-06-03T17:23:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:23:01","slug":"is-low-tech-the-new-high-tech-for-creating-a-sustainable-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tha.de\/honors\/2025\/2025\/05\/12\/is-low-tech-the-new-high-tech-for-creating-a-sustainable-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Low-Tech the New High-Tech for Creating a Sustainable Future?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blog \u2013 May 6, 2025, Seventh Week Honors Seminar<\/em> Prof. Dr. Florian H\u00f6rmann<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Utopia?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Take a moment to go into yourself. Try and listen to your body, your mind \u2014 What are your needs? What makes you feel comfortable? What makes you feel at ease?
Try to picture a world, taking in all those factors, actively contributing to your wellbeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now compare it with modern societies approach of what a future world might look like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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>> Google search:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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futuristic city<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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futuristic society<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

…
And? Any discrepancies? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it is time that we start questioning our idea of an ‘high-tech future at all costs’ \u2014 take a step back, become aware of the impact this thinking already has on our society and build on a true Utopia.
And that’s exactly what we did in this week’s seminar!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Constructing Our Own Utopia<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Is low-tech actually the new high-tech for achieving a better, more optimistic future? A bold question of guidance for this weeks seminar looking at the current technical developments. Self-driving cars, billions in investment of quantum computing and other high-tech innovations, and AI suddenly popping up everywhere \u2014 One thing is certain: Our current common mindset is primed on always wanting the best and most powerful tech or the most economic growth. But is this a sustainable way of thinking, being confronted with the big crises of our time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The good old days of prosperity…<\/strong>
Prof. Dr. Florian H\u00f6rmann, chair of this weeks seminar, jokingly opened by showing us a clip from “The Flintstones” – a TV show about a stone age family as we would need to return to their level of technology to achieve true sustainability. Of course this was meant as a exaggeration, but as every hyperbole, it contained a basis of truth, setting the scene for the rest of the seminar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A clip of the American State of the Union address, delivered by President Bill Clinton in the Year 2000 contrasted the unprecedented periods of peace and prosperity back then with what feels like the current stagnating state of the western world right now. A state of the world with all its problems, like wars, famine and climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


Now looking into the future, the decision has to be made: How<\/em> do we want to get out of this state? And what kind of future<\/em> do we want to turn out of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because YES!<\/em><\/strong>
\u27a8 A better world \u2014 sustainable and just \u2014 is possible.
\u27a8 However, it does not arise spontaneously.
\u27a8 We can and have to create and shape it ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCES<\/summary>\n

>> The Flintstones<\/a> <<<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

>> The 2000 State of the Union<\/a> <<<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

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The often overlooked side of technology…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Making aluminium near Ambatolampy in the Central Highlands of Madagascar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
>> ‘CTRL-X, a topography of e-waste’ by Kai L\u00f6ffelbein<\/a> <<<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During the lesson we got confronted with a more narrow slice of the problems facing our world primed on technological growth: Florian gave us a book called “CTRL-X”. In it there was a collection of pictures taken amongst different places in the third world, being utterly littered by broken or otherwise discarded electronics. Also shown are people having to work at these landfills risking their health disassembling what we just throw away as rubbish, not really questioning what happens afterwards. Quite unsettling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So how can we change this? How can we go from throwaway tech<\/em> to sustainable technology<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As inspiration, Florian brought along some real world examples. Like a fully repairable<\/a> or even fully self-made<\/a> mobile phone, or a gadget<\/a> using your docked smartphone’s computing power to use as a laptop with a large screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"This<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So now it was time for us, the audience to get involved. Our tasks:
First, envision the worst smartphone we could imagine! Then secondly, use this collection to think of a ‘Smartphone-Utopia’, tackling all those issues!
Our collective results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DISTOPIA: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u27a8 unable to recharge
\u27a8 unable to turn off
\u27a8 following\/spying on you
\u27a8 unable to repair
\u27a8 unsafe, unease or inconvenient
to use<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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UTOPIA: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u27a8 produced under fair, sustainable
circumstances
\u27a8 affordable for everyone
\u27a8 no need to charge
\u27a8 fully recyclable
\u27a8 supports adaptive use
\u27a8 upgradable\/replaceable parts
\u27a8 enforcing safe usage
(fact checks, data security,…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Documenting an utopian future<\/strong>
For the last part of our session we had the opportunity to combine everything from before in documenting a glimpse into a possible ‘utopian future’<\/em>.
What could life be like in a perfect society?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three different scenarios, documented via three different ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DRAWING AN UTOPIA<\/summary>\n
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LETTER FROM OUR GRANDCHILD<\/summary>\n
\"Dear Grandfather James,

I am sitting beneath a tree on my rooftop and writing this letter to you. It feels like writing on a real sheet of paper as far as I can imagine hat - you just told me about it, but I never experienced it myself. I do not need a pen or an eraser, the words that I have in my mind appear on the surface as soon as I slide over the it.
I just got that physical upgrade for my phone last week and gave the replaced parts to the recycling institute for someone else to become a new phone.
Is it really true that you had to recharge and throw away your phones? At school we had a discussion in history about that topic and we really could not imagine that this had ever been the case. We do not have to care about energy management so some of my fellow class mates didn't even know what a battery is!

This made me realize, what part you played in creating the world I live in today.

Love,
Clemagacla\"<\/pre>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n
AUDIO STORY FROM THE FUTURE<\/summary>\n
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