Techno Talk
Technology comes in
different shapes and sizes Max the Magnificent
What constitutes high versus low tech evolves over time. Can you conceive the confused conjectures
that could have commenced if a band of Stone Age wanderers stumbled across a time traveler’s cache
of glass marbles, for example?
T
hese days, we’re accustomed
to hearing the term ‘high tech,’
short for ‘high technology,’ but
what does this actually mean? In fact,
this phrase, which may also be referred
to as ‘advanced technology’ (‘advanced
tech’) or ‘exotechnology’ essentially
means the highest form of technology currently available. It can also be
defined as either the most complex
technology obtainable or the newest
technology on the market.
The obvious opposite to high tech
would be ‘low tech,’ but this is a bit
harder to pin down (and don’t get me
started on big tech, small tech, retro
tech, slow tech, and wild tech). Some
people regard low tech as referring to
pre-industrial revolution machines like
windmills and sailboats. More generally,
the Cambridge International Dictionary
of English defines low tech as a technology that is ‘not recent or uses old
materials.’ A more nuanced definition of
low tech extends to new, future-oriented
techniques that are more environmentally and ecologically sensitive.
For the engineer in me, it’s tempting
to categorise low tech as referring to
simple, traditional, mechanical technologies. On this basis, we might class
slide rules as being low-tech calculating devices, which isn’t to say that
they aren’t incredibly clever. From another perspective, today’s high tech is
tomorrow’s low tech. When vacuumtube-based electronic devices like radios
first appeared on the market in the early
1900s, they would have been classed as
high tech (well, maybe not, because the
‘high tech’ nomenclature wasn’t coined
until a 1958 column in The New York
Times), but most of us would now class
these cunning contraptions as falling
into the ‘low tech’ category.
That’s nuts!
The reason I’m currently cogitating on
this topic has its origin in the mid-1980s
when the small company I was working
for designed a hardware accelerator for
UNIX computers. This was a box around
the size of a small UK refrigerator that
sat next to the main UNIX machine. Our
8
accelerator could offload the main machine and speed some applications by
one or two orders of magnitude.
Eventually, we sent our masterpiece off
to a special laboratory to have it tested
for its resiliency to vibration and shock,
and to be certified for use in industrial
environments. It failed. According to the
report, the accelerator was DOA (dead
on arrival). On its way to the lab, the machine nuts attaching the top-mounted
cooling fan had vibrated loose, allowing
the fan to fall into the guts (well, brains)
of the machine. Suffice it to say that we
ended up wearing our sad faces that day.
This all came flooding back to me
when I ran across a nice video about
something called Nord-lock washers
(https://bit.ly/3zXrxcZ). Prior to seeing
this little scamp, I would have classed
machine screws and nuts and washers
as being low tech. All I can say is that
I now look at washer technology with
new respect. I haven’t felt this excited
since I was introduced to the concept of
a one-way Tesla valve that allows water
(or another fluid) to flow one way and
blocks it from flowing the other way,
all without any moving parts – see:
https://bit.ly/3GLw71F
You can tell me that both these devices are low tech as much as you want,
but they impress the socks off me!
Losing my marbles
When I was a kid, I used to enjoy playing with glass marbles. I also used to
enjoy simply looking at them. Some
had swirls of color, others contained
small bubbles of air, and each was a
delight in its own unique way.
I’m sure that the machines used to
create glass marbles would be classed
as being low tech, and that may be true,
but if you were tasked with designing
a machine to make marbles, would
you be up to the task? To be honest, I
wouldn’t have known where to start
until I ran across a very cool video
that explains all: https://bit.ly/43zJbAY
Triangles, tiles, and mazes (Oh my!)
A few days ago, as I pen these words, I
started to hear tales racing around the
interweb that two high school students
had come up with a new proof of the
Pythagorean theorem (you know the
one, a2 + b2 = c2). Initially, I was somewhat underwhelmed, but then I started
to think about how I would go about
generating such a proof. It didn’t take
long before I wanted to learn more, so
I found a video that explains all. All
I can say is that Pythagoras would be
proud: https://bit.ly/3MLxGAA
On the one hand, you can’t get much
more low tech than tiles (think ceramic tiles covering a bathroom floor). Of
course, actually making tiles is a lot
harder than talking about making them
(I know because I have my own kiln that
I’m using to make tiles for a monster
mosaic, but that’s a story for another
day). I just heard that an amateur mathematician has discovered a 13-sided
tile that can cover a surface without
ever creating a repeating pattern – see:
https://cnn.it/41q1iYO
The problem with YouTube is that
you keep on getting sucked into metaphorical rabbit holes. For example,
I also ran across a fascinating video
showing how water can be used to
solve a maze: https://bit.ly/41JVfOa
Reinventing the wheel
People say that you shouldn’t waste
your time reinventing the wheel. What
they fail to mention is that you may end
up creating a revolutionary new rolling
device. Last year I was introduced to an
example where someone managed to
use two half wheels to perform the task
of a full one: https://bit.ly/3KORUqA
More recently, I saw a video of
someone sitting on what appeared to
be a normal bicycle equipped with
two square wheels. When the bike’s
creator mounted the beast, I was expecting a painful viewing experience,
but I was blown away by what I saw:
https://bit.ly/3osHuW3
Amazingly, one of my friends found
the perfect complementary clip from
the 1964 British ‘historical’ comedy
film Carry on Cleo. Make sure to watch
to the very end because the last line is
the corker: https://bit.ly/3otsEP7
Practical Electronics | June | 2023
