Sharing this post from mildyinteresting Community because I think you’ll be interested in it over here in the solarpunk community

Sorry if I have accidentally reposted it

  • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    How do you define “natural” vs “artificial” here, and what’s to say modern air conditioning doesn’t already build on what we know from old methods?

    • Platomus
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      1 year ago

      What do you think they could have meant?

            • Platomus
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              1 year ago

              Right… And you don’t see any glaring differences between to two?

              • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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                1 year ago

                There are differences, obviously, but I don’t know which of those differences would make one of them natural. Nature didn’t create either of them; they are both man-made constructions.

                • Platomus
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                  1 year ago

                  But using your intuitions, which one do you think the person responded to above meant as more natural?

                  Probably the one that doesn’t use electricity, right?

                  It feels like being obtuse for no reason.

                  • x4740N@lemmy.worldOP
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                    1 year ago

                    You are correct

                    I used the words “natural technology” because it felt like the best word to describe natural solutions like the air tower in the image

                  • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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                    1 year ago

                    So, electricity is unnatural and hence bad? Is that the point being made here? Because the original opinion was that we should focus on natural solutions over artificial ones, and I asked the question in an effort to understand why they would say that.

                    Instead of arguing against a guess (or “intuition”) of what they mean, I think it’s constructive to find out exactly what they mean first. That way we’re not just talking past one another in the typical, polarized internet fashion.

      • x4740N@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        What I’m talking about is natural technology like the air cooling tower in the image

        And artificial technology that’s made using electricity and circuit boards

        I do believe relying on natural stuff and supplementing it with technology to enhance and / or expand upon a feature of a technology or to serve as a feature that cannot be attained by natural means

        Technology supplementation should only be really used when necessary