The old, the new and the torn

Many personality analysis consider the attraction or inclination for novelty as one of the defining factors in our character. Words like change, progress, experimentation, discovery, innovation are associated with novelty, whereas tradition, order, stability, reliability are linked to an aversion to novelty. This division is very clear in politics, where social conservatives are in favor of the religious marriage, traditional families, mono-cultural societies, and other institutions that are well established, even if they are far from perfect, while social progressives are normally supporters of civil unions, gay marriage, multiculturalism, and considering any renewal of an institution if it holds a promise for improvement for society. Of course, this social opinions normally get folded with economic policy to configure the different political options around the world, but that is a debate for another day.

All my life I have considered myself open to exploration, went through a phase of avid admiration for technology, and I have an ardent faith in science and reason as engine for human development. However, in the last decade or two my own openness has lead me to reach an appreciation for old things as well. I guess that this appreciation comes from the consideration that the societies of the past are not all that different from the societies abroad: they have their own norms and environmental conditions, so the customs are technology are adapted to situation they live in. 

Photo: Masahiro Hayata

Let's consider the example of building technologies. In Canada and northern Europe hardwood trees were widely available, what explains that wooden houses were commonplace from the early human settlements. In northern Africa and the US southwest, the more arid conditions left no other option than building with adobes. Building with bricks in Canada is technically possible, but it would have been a waste of resources. The same goes for devoting valuable lumber to building houses in the subdesert, when there are much better uses for this expensive commodity. The choice in each case was strongly conditioned by the context and the available resources. These days construction materials have become so cheap and easy to transport that building with bricks in northern Europe is not that much more expensive than building with wood, and it brings other advantages.

The same can be said with the technologies of the past. Back in the 1940s and 1950s it was hard to optimize the design of the automobile engines, so the only acceptable compromise was to take big margins and accept a sub-optimal solution. Of course, the fuel economy was abysmal at one third or one quarter of the mileage in modern cars, but the engines run for ever. I do not worship old stuff for being old, but by the wonderful solution that it was in its time. One can only admire the ingenuity of the mechanics that figured a way to make the car run without having a detail model of what was happening inside.

Another proverbial example is the Apollo Guidance Computer, that landed two astronauts on the moon with less computing power than my wrist watch today. If they did not have better technologies it is not because they were dumb or lazy, they just had to work with the tools they had, and they did a damned fine job!

This reflection actually started yesterday evening, when I saw with Karen a video on YouTube of a guy refurbishing his Tokyo apartment. I could not suppress a cringe when I saw him ripping apart wonderful wood-and-paper sliding doors that had been in place probably for fifty or sixty years. They are probably not optimal from today's point of view, but they are still beautiful with the combination of two ancient materials in a careful assembly.

However, I have to admit that the upgrade was simply outstanding. The apartment was way more spacious after the rework, functional, modern and comfortable. One can only admire the ingenuity of the builder that figured a way to make a welcoming flat with those starting materials. Still, I am torn between my admiration for the new and my appreciation of the old. I hope you have a nice evening.