Carlota Perez [http://www.carlotaperez.org/] gave a really interesting talk. it started off really slow and a bit over academic. then as she warmed up, the topic really started getting interesting. she made the point that every age has an important relationship between technological and social innovation. My notes below are a bit scattered. there were times when her powerpoints were so dense with text it was impossible to multi-task. the bottom line is to try to imagine what the internet will do to society.....do we know?
Age of steam – Victorian living – the British middle-classes establish an industry based urban lifestyle different from that of the rural based arisrocacy.
Age of steel – Belle Epoche -
Age of Oil – the American way of living
Age of Information – Perhaps the sustainable global lifestyles.
Taking a closer look at the American way of Life which emerged in the 1910’s.
It was essentially unsustainable. Interesting slides, but too much to summarize here.
Three of the may new directions of the current paradigm shift:
Homogeneity of mass production to moving to Diversity of ICT/Flexible construction which is adaptable and recognizing the potential of the ‘long tail’.
National economies moving to globalization. This is really about a global economy with differentiated national, supranational and local spaces.
Unavoidable environmental damage moving to capacity for environmental protection.
She went on to talk about the impacts.
Fabrication industries - One will be minimum energy and materials. Zero defects, zero resource waste. Design for low energy use in operation. Planned upgradeability rather than obsolescence. Disassembly, recycling
In the process industries – energy saving and intelligent process controls. Low enery processes by products seen as sources of value. Trend toward closed-loop systems. Custom made materials, development of nano-technology and biotech.
Products profile – more services than tangible products – return of pleasure in quality leisure, not in objects. Very high quality f products, small and multi-purpose.
CAR AS THE LAST RESORT.
Notions of luxury and good taste emerge at the top of the icome scale and spread by imitation
Health vs hygiene
Some interesting observations……
rising prices of oil and raw materials
visible effects of increasing global warming with a rising climate risk. These two things will result in a reording o the economies of production, transport etc.
she talked about the a variation of Utopianism vs Realism. she then then went on to talk about the two phases of technological revolution – the first is installation and the second is deployment.
We have to return to a focus on production. She argues that the current financial markets are essentially like holding knives to the throats of the firms. Wealth should be the focus not the distribution of ‘sharholder value’. Which is a bunch of bunk.
