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How Does Big Societal Change Happen?
Views: 344
Oct 30 2014 04:20 PM | eds in Green Living
Consumer Technology
It depends on the type of societal change to which we are referring.
. . . If we’re talking about consumer goods and technology,
. . . the process is pretty well understood.
Better products are developed, but they start out expensive.
. . . “Early adopters” with a lot of money buy them first,
. . . which helps the companies who produce them to gain economies of scale and
. . . bring down the costs.
Furthermore, there’s often a lot of room for improvement with new technologies,
. . . so they get better and costs come down through work “in the labs” as well.
Eventually, the technology gets picked up by a 2nd group of early
. . . (but not super early) adopters.
You could actually say that this process happens several times,
. . . or even gradually in a sort of spectrum.
At some point, so many people, know people who have the technology, and
. . . the cost has come down so much,
. . . that there’s a lot of pressure on these remaining people to take the plunge and
. . . get the “new technology” as well.
In the case of products core to modern life,
. . . (such as refrigerators, TVs, dishwashers, cell phones, etc.),
. . . it becomes the norm to have the products, something that is widely expected.
Solar panels do fit this model, it's basically about cost and broader benefits.
. . . In the developing world, people are actually leapfrogging a centralized grid, and
. . . jumping into solar power.
Its decentralized nature allows people to have the amenities of electricity,
. . . in the remotest areas completely off any grid or connected to a microgrid.
This is essentially the same thing as what happened,
. . . when people in the developing world,
. . . leapfrogged from no phones to cell phones.
Consumer experience, "more FUN, less STRESS,"
. . . is an important part of a person’s decision to buy one thing over another.
10-30-2014 Source: How does big societal change happen?
It depends on the type of societal change to which we are referring.
. . . If we’re talking about consumer goods and technology,
. . . the process is pretty well understood.
Better products are developed, but they start out expensive.
. . . “Early adopters” with a lot of money buy them first,
. . . which helps the companies who produce them to gain economies of scale and
. . . bring down the costs.
Furthermore, there’s often a lot of room for improvement with new technologies,
. . . so they get better and costs come down through work “in the labs” as well.
Eventually, the technology gets picked up by a 2nd group of early
. . . (but not super early) adopters.
You could actually say that this process happens several times,
. . . or even gradually in a sort of spectrum.
At some point, so many people, know people who have the technology, and
. . . the cost has come down so much,
. . . that there’s a lot of pressure on these remaining people to take the plunge and
. . . get the “new technology” as well.
In the case of products core to modern life,
. . . (such as refrigerators, TVs, dishwashers, cell phones, etc.),
. . . it becomes the norm to have the products, something that is widely expected.
Solar panels do fit this model, it's basically about cost and broader benefits.
. . . In the developing world, people are actually leapfrogging a centralized grid, and
. . . jumping into solar power.
Its decentralized nature allows people to have the amenities of electricity,
. . . in the remotest areas completely off any grid or connected to a microgrid.
This is essentially the same thing as what happened,
. . . when people in the developing world,
. . . leapfrogged from no phones to cell phones.
Consumer experience, "more FUN, less STRESS,"
. . . is an important part of a person’s decision to buy one thing over another.
10-30-2014 Source: How does big societal change happen?
