“Daily ecology”, “degrowth”, “soft technologies”, “resilient lifestyles”: what are the ins and outs of this low-tech approach, what are its objectives and demands, and above all, is it a viable solution and if so, in which areas?
This description paints a portrait of low-tech as a critic of digital, but its action is broader, since this approach is more focused on the future of digital and the questioning of our consumption patterns and militates once morest this does more for a digital environment that is more respectful of the environment.
Low-tech, definition
Low-tech products pre-exist today’s high-tech objects. Defined as “objects, systems, techniques, services, know-how, practices, lifestyles, and even currents of thought, which integrate technology according to three main principles: utile, accessible, durable According to the low-tech Lab, a French association founded in 2013, low-tech technologies remain relevant over time, particularly in the face of current ecological and economic problems. These technologies are therefore simple, useful, and technically and financially accessible to all, that is to say in such a way as to meet individual and collective essential needs.
Source: Bournigal, Emilien. “Low-tech: definition and examples of THE innovation approach”. Low-tech Nation, March 18, 2022.
An alternative to high-tech tools
The articulation between high and low-tech in the current level of digital evolution may seem complicated, even contradictory. Nevertheless, the essence of the low-tech approach does not consist in making digital technology disappear in its current state, but more in questioning and changing our relationship to technology, that is to say “to remake it into a means rather than ‘an end in itself’ and to oppose the obsolescence of our digital tools.
The Low-tech approach also offers a response to current ecological problems, particularly the shortage of raw materials, the increase in energy needs and the disappearance of fossil fuels. By questioning our real needs, it is possible to project ourselves into a more equitable and less energy-consuming digital future.
“The Internet is dead, long live the low-tech Internet”: Does a low-tech digital exist?
The current low-tech philosophy, a true vision of ecology, might be considered by some as putting production increases on hold, or even a brake on innovation. It is important to note that such measures would go once morest what human history has shown us since the beginning: to own more, to produce more, to expand in terms of number and surface. The low-tech vision is therefore opposed to another, which might be described as “more moderate” and which accepts increased production and global growth, but which does so with respect for the environment and resources of the earth. Proponents of this philosophy carry the same motto: “do more with less”, which demonstrates that at any given time, multiple philosophical visions can be described by the same slogan but are still intrinsically opposed. Nevertheless, it is not relevant to oppose and compare low-tech exclusively with mass productivism, since many other paths are imagined, especially since for some low-tech rhymes with utopia.
So, is the low-tech approach applicable everywhere? If the examples of its application are undoubtedly more eloquent in wealthy Western societies and in areas such as energy, water, trade and distribution (zero waste, short circuits), agriculture and food (permaculture, organic, local) and even urban planning (ecological houses, eco-districts), it is much less so when it comes to digital or the Internet: what would the Internet look like, what would happen to social networks, e-commerce, or even wireless networks.
The digital environment as we know it today is anything but low-tech: data hosting, power consumption, energy-intensive terminals… As a result, such a digital environment, which is mainly sustainable, accessible and useful, is very far from our reality, and even opposes, in a sense, the digital as such:
- The usefulness of digital: in the sense of the low-tech approach, digital “is not part of human needs” – it is not an area that meets the most basic needs.
- Digital technology is inseparable from the use of electronic components and it would therefore be difficult to “greatly reduce the environmental impacts of digital technology without reducing the very use” of these components.
If low-tech digital is a utopia for some – important lessons can still be learned from the low-tech approach : more restrained consumption, more ecological accommodation solutions, favoring repair over replacement. This is why it seems more appropriate for the moment to speak of lower-tech to designate the efforts to be made in the direction of a more ethical and sober digital.
The Low-tech Lab, a French initiative
The object of the Low-tech Lab being to “give the desire and the means to do better with less”. Hosted on a website low consumptionthe Lab makes it its mission to explore and experiment with solutions and projects Low-tech everywhere in France and in the world, in different contexts and fields, but also to document, disseminate, transmit, and even educate, through a free MOOC.
“Digital is the industrial sector whose energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are growing the fastest, at around 9% per year for energy and 8% per year for greenhouse gases. In 2020, the digital technology emits more greenhouse gases than civil aviation. »
What if, in France, by 2040?
On the occasion of the 41e Meeting of urban planning agencies of the Fnau network in December 2020 on the theme of the future, the experts present vhave projected themselves into a “desirable future” and questioned the place of knowledge and techniques in the followingmath of the Covid-19 crisis, which has helped to highlight our impact on the planet. In this world of 2040, the meaning of technical progress is questioned and the concept of innovation is reinvented:
“Innovation should not be captured by technology, it is also social, organizational, institutional, citizen”.
The 2020 projections imagined by these experts, which includes Philippe Bihouix, central engineer and specialist in non-renewable resources, and Quentin Mateus from the Low-tech Lab, remain interesting. In 2022, i.e. two years following their creation, these projections appear to be optimistic. Indeed, the energy and ecological crisis is currently in full swing while the first measures imagined by the experts have not been taken – far from it.
