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How much technology has been lost throughout history?
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<blockquote data-quote="Paracelsus" data-source="post: 959601" data-attributes="member: 8098"><p>The shortest answer is planned obsolescence.</p><p></p><p>Take your average incandescent lightbulb. Edison is not the inventor or the only historical producer of electric bulbs; like Henry Ford, he's merely the guy who was the most successful at selling them and finding a bulb that would keep him in business. Edison's first lightbulb only lasted 13.5 hours, but in months he had built one that lasted 1,200 hours ... that is, three years of continuous burning.</p><p></p><p>But Edison's bulb is not the best. The best one is the one that's stood the test of time, the bulb that Adolphe Chailet built, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243138/Still-glowing-strong-109-years-worlds-oldest-lightbulb.html" target="_blank">one of which has been burning for more than a century non-stop</a>. Note in the story that they trialed several different bulbs from several different companies with increasing voltage. While every other bulb -- including Edison's -- burst as the voltage increased, Chailet's bulb took it without flinching and just kept getting brighter.</p><p></p><p>How is it that the earliest light bulbs lasted for decades longer than they do now?</p><p></p><p>In brief, the <a href="http://economicstudents.com/2012/09/planned-obsolescence-the-light-bulb-conspiracy/" target="_blank">Phoebus Cartel</a>, something that sounds like the title of a Robert Ludlum novel but which was deadly serious. The lightbulb companies got together in the 1920s, realising that as their designs got better and better, their sales dropped off further and further.</p><p></p><p>Per that page I've linked to:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Planned obsolescence forces us to buy more shit earlier because it doesn't last as long, but Brooks Stevens' insight attacked the Western psyche and made us our own psychological slaves to planned obsolescence: he played on us not being <em>forced</em> to buy a new product when it burned out, but rather created/played on our thirst for something newer than what we have. This is where the loss of craftsmanship really lies: because we were fooled, as a society, into thinking that because something was new it was automatically better. You can see the results of that mindset in the idiot hordes who queue up for the newest shitty iPhone that does exactly the same thing the old one does. Planned obsolescene is one of the fathers of our consumerist society.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Paracelsus, post: 959601, member: 8098"] The shortest answer is planned obsolescence. Take your average incandescent lightbulb. Edison is not the inventor or the only historical producer of electric bulbs; like Henry Ford, he's merely the guy who was the most successful at selling them and finding a bulb that would keep him in business. Edison's first lightbulb only lasted 13.5 hours, but in months he had built one that lasted 1,200 hours ... that is, three years of continuous burning. But Edison's bulb is not the best. The best one is the one that's stood the test of time, the bulb that Adolphe Chailet built, [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243138/Still-glowing-strong-109-years-worlds-oldest-lightbulb.html]one of which has been burning for more than a century non-stop[/url]. Note in the story that they trialed several different bulbs from several different companies with increasing voltage. While every other bulb -- including Edison's -- burst as the voltage increased, Chailet's bulb took it without flinching and just kept getting brighter. How is it that the earliest light bulbs lasted for decades longer than they do now? In brief, the [url=http://economicstudents.com/2012/09/planned-obsolescence-the-light-bulb-conspiracy/]Phoebus Cartel[/url], something that sounds like the title of a Robert Ludlum novel but which was deadly serious. The lightbulb companies got together in the 1920s, realising that as their designs got better and better, their sales dropped off further and further. Per that page I've linked to: Planned obsolescence forces us to buy more shit earlier because it doesn't last as long, but Brooks Stevens' insight attacked the Western psyche and made us our own psychological slaves to planned obsolescence: he played on us not being [i]forced[/i] to buy a new product when it burned out, but rather created/played on our thirst for something newer than what we have. This is where the loss of craftsmanship really lies: because we were fooled, as a society, into thinking that because something was new it was automatically better. You can see the results of that mindset in the idiot hordes who queue up for the newest shitty iPhone that does exactly the same thing the old one does. Planned obsolescene is one of the fathers of our consumerist society. [/QUOTE]
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