Technology gone wild

Sir James Dyson is a world famous inventor/engineer, whose iconic products such as a bagless vacuum cleaner and "air blade" (to be found in most airports and hotels worldwide) combine the best of solid engineering and creative design. He has also campaigned vigorously for guiding young minds into engineering, which is also admirable.

But I think its time to take a step back and think about his latest invention - the "tap cum hand dryer", which will not only wash your hands, but also dry them, to avoid leaving, as he states, "a trail of drops on the floor".

Talk about using a sledgehammer to go after a mosquito! I fear that Sir James has gone a bit too far on this one, and is trying to find just another outlet for his expertise in channeling huge amounts of hot air (something that was usually reserved for politicians). And while his invention will certainly reduce the amount of paper towels that are being used worldwide (provided, of course, that the option is not provided in the first place - we are so conditioned to look for a paper towel  that we will walk the entire length of a restroom, bypassing all the fancy hand dryers, just to grab a stack!), there are other ways in which the same objective could be achieved.

In the old days, everyone used to carry around a handkerchief (the "hanky") which could be used for various purposes including wiping ones hands. The beauty of this was that after about 10 minutes, the hanky was dry once again, as the water would have evaporated. In fact, if you vigorously shake your hands after washing them, about 80% of the water goes off anyway, and it doesn't take that much longer for the rest to dry off.

Even now, fancy hotels will keep regular small cotton towels on hand that people can use, and then throw into a bin for them to be washed and returned. Certainly a lot more eco friendly than paper towels, but also less energy intensive than an automated hand dryer. Think about your own home - would you use paper towels to dry your hands, or clean up a mess? Most of us have cotton towels that we use and reuse and reuse and reuse and ....you get the point.

By trying to force technology into an issue which is more behavioural in nature, we lead people to believe that they should not be using their common sense. This explains the emergence of all the "smart" devices including phones, TVs, appliances etc. Let's not succumb to a new technology simply because it seems "cool". Let's instead examine whether it is really required, or if there is another low-tech way of achieving the same objective.

Find your p's and q's

Walk down the aisles of your local supermarket, and pay attention to the sizes of the containers for milk, juice, soft drinks and other liquids. Chances are that other than kid size containers meant for little lunchboxes, the average size of these containers will be about a half gallon or close to 2 liters. The "supersizing" of food has been going on for some time now, and several documentaries and news reports have commented on how this has led to an increasing obesity level amongst the general population. But the effect is not just on our waistlines, but also on the size of the most central of domestic appliances - the refrigerator.

From a simple ice box over a century ago, the fridge today has become a virtual house unto itself, with all kinds of "smart" features being built in to detect if food has spoilt (what happened to the age old "smell test"?), ordering stuff that is about to run out directly from the store (the end of shopping lists for husbands) and - of course - providing a drink of cool water, eliminating the need to ever stick a glass under the tap on the kitchen sink.

I refer to the fridge as the most central appliance because it is the only one to consume energy 24x7 - unless the power goes off. Day or night, no matter the external conditions, the fridge continues to hum away, expelling heat while keeping all your perishables nice and cold (at least they got rid of the freon, so you're not harming the ozone layer at the same time). And as the size of fridges has gone up, so has their energy consumption, notwithstanding attempts to make them more energy efficient (which is a slightly more sophisticated version of making a diet cola).

While living in the UK, however, I realized that there is a way around this, which is to simply reduce the size of containers available in supermarkets. So the humble pints and quarts were back, and I would regularly buy small containers of milk and juice and put them in a fridge which was about half my height. with a smaller fridge, the temptation to hoard items was no longer present - you only bought what you wanted, which in turn led to less wastage. So a simple switch to a small container has a profound multiplier effect (in this case, a divisor effect!) Smaller container = smaller fridge = less energy consumed = less wastage = less obesity.

Now let's try convincing the food and packaging manufacturers to get on board with this idea. It sounds too simple, but that's because it is. Prior to the consumer revolution (post WW II, where the advancements in manufacturing from the industrial revolution found a ready outlet), we didn't have giant containers, and most people did just fine. Remember - all good things come in small packages. What's true for diamonds applies just as well to other aspects of our lives.