Appreciate the technology in the items you own
Summary
- The things we own likely have some incredible technology or workmanship that went into them. take some moments to consider their manufacture
Details
- metal was mined from deep in the earth and melted at high temperatures
- plastics are made of oil that in turn was made from organic material from millennia ago
References
Quotes
Here’s a suggestion. Perhaps after you’ve watched that James Bond movie, balance it out by watching The Gods Must be Crazy , which makes you feel amazed that something as beautiful and useful as a Coke bottle exists at all. Look at the slightly daggy chair at your kitchen table, and be gobsmacked by the fact that men collected sap oozing from subtropical trees to make the rubber for the nubs on its legs. Huge machines pulled the metal for its frame out of the depths of the earth and heated it until it glowed so as to extrude it into the right shape. Ancient oil was whipped into a frenzy with pigments and catalysts until it became that moulded plastic seat. Do this same thinking to the clock on your wall, the bread on your shelf, and the cheesecake in your fridge.
Be dazzled that you even have all this stuff with its stupefying lineage of effort and resources. Be reverential! Be grateful. Then look after it – the practice is sure to come back into fashion sooner or later anyway.