Rebecca Alowo
As a result of the Covid 19 fight, many technologies emerged. Covid 19 presented challenges that show that technology can take all forms.
A hand sanitizer dispenser can be termed as : capital-saving technology, labour-intensive technology, alternate technology, self-help technology, village-level technology, community technology, progressive technology,
Indigenous technology, people’s technology, light engineering technology, adaptive technology, light-capital technology or soft technology.
One gets to choose what hand sanitizer dispenser works, and this defines the technology ladder.
I could be wrong but, appropriate is defined as being mindful of what we’re doing and aware of the consequences. As such Appropriate Technology works from the bottom up; it is not an overlay to the situation; it is a genuine grassroots solution to economic needs.
According to the E.F Schumacher, Appropriate Technology (AT) is technology that is designed with special consideration to the environmental, ethical, cultural, social and economic aspects of the community it is intended for.
With these goals in mind, AT typically requires fewer resources, is easier to maintain, and has a lower overall cost and less of an impact on the environment compared to industrialized practices.
In practice, Appropriate Technology is often something described as using the simplest level of technology that can effectively achieve the intended purpose in a particular location. There exist different viewpoints to Appropriate Technology, for instance the term is usually used to describe simple technologies suitable for use in developing nations or less developed rural areas of industrialized nations.
It’s used frequently in referring to engineering that takes special consideration of its social and environmental ramifications. No matter the definition world over, AT bear’s similar characteristics that is: it usually prefers labor-intensive solutions over capital-intensive ones, although labor-saving devices are also used where this does not mean high capital or maintenance cost.
Going forward post Covid 19 technology should embrace a progressive technology ladder.
Rebecca Alowo is a DEng student at Central University of Technology Free State South Africa. The writer also works as a Senior Consultant Research Studies at Quantum Executive Education. Occasionally the writer also free lances under Kenyonyozi properties.
