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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios,

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer

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Speaker 1: with How Stuff Works and I heart Radio and I

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Speaker 1: love all things tech. And In this classic episode of

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff, which originally published on August twenty second, two twelve,

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Speaker 1: Chris Palette and I talk about repurposing technology for developing countries,

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Speaker 1: taking technology that might be considered outdated here in the

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Speaker 1: United States and in other parts of the world, and

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Speaker 1: then making sure that that technology, with the proper support,

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Speaker 1: goes to places where it can do an enormous amount

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Speaker 1: of good. I find this particular topic pretty inspirational when

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Speaker 1: it is done properly. Obviously, you can do this in

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Speaker 1: a way that can cause no good at all, or

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Speaker 1: maybe even cause harm if done irresponsibly. But we'll get

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Speaker 1: into all of that. So let's sit back, relax and

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Speaker 1: enjoy this classic episode. We're gonna talk about something that's

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Speaker 1: really kind of a a humanitarian sort of approach to hacking.

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Speaker 1: But before we really get into it, I wanted to

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Speaker 1: read something. It's a little listener mail. This is actual

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Speaker 1: listener mail. I have it in front of me. It's

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Speaker 1: on real paper and everything. What kind of strange technology

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Speaker 1: is that I know? Not? It confuses and frightens me.

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Speaker 1: It's like it's appearing on a screen, but it's on

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Speaker 1: an actual physical sheet of paper. Who's it is? But

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Speaker 1: only because there's a lamp behind the letter that I'm reading.

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Speaker 1: This is a letter that we received from our super fan,

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Speaker 1: Adam Pervez, who actually has sent stuff to lots of

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Speaker 1: our podcast He's a big fan of How Stuff Works

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Speaker 1: podcasts in general. And if you guys have been to

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Speaker 1: our Facebook page, you may have seen a picture Chris

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Speaker 1: and I were sporting a pair of alpaca wool hats,

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Speaker 1: and these are hats that he picked up while he

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Speaker 1: was doing something he calls the happiness plunge. Packers are keen. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so the happiness plunges. This idea he had where he

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Speaker 1: decided he wanted to really follow his dreams and try

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Speaker 1: to make the world a better place than it was

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Speaker 1: when he got there. And so the idea is that

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Speaker 1: he quit his job and he started traveling through the

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Speaker 1: world really but mostly through Latin America when he started,

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Speaker 1: and trying to help different communities as he traveled from

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Speaker 1: place to place, he would listen to the house Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works podcasts in between those places. Well, I wanted to

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Speaker 1: read a paragraph from this letter. It's actually a fairly

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Speaker 1: long letter, so I'm not gonna read the whole thing,

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Speaker 1: but here's the paragraph. My goal is a travelers to

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Speaker 1: leave each place better than how I found it, which

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Speaker 1: I do by volunteering everywhere I go. I've had volunteering

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Speaker 1: experiences such as feeding the elderly at a nursing home

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Speaker 1: in Mexico, installing solar panels in rural Honduras, attracting book

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Speaker 1: donations for a rural library project in Peru, playing with

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Speaker 1: kids at orphanages in Costa Rica and Ecuador, designing a

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Speaker 1: financing strategy for a new NGO and El Salvador, and

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Speaker 1: marketing an organization that turns donated used bikes into bike machines,

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Speaker 1: washing machines, blenders, water well pumps, etcetera in Guatemala. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot I can offer as an engineer slash NBA

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Speaker 1: and there's more to the letter than that, but that's

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Speaker 1: kind of what gave us the idea for this podcast.

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Speaker 1: We wanted to talk about technology that people have taken

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Speaker 1: and repurposed to benefit people who are in developing nations

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Speaker 1: who don't have access to the same level of technology

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Speaker 1: we do. And in fact, if we were to give

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Speaker 1: those people the technology that we take for granted every day,

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Speaker 1: it would not necessarily be helpful because their conditions, their

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Speaker 1: day to day conditions are so vastly different from the

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Speaker 1: ones we are used to that they would not necessarily

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Speaker 1: be able to take advantage of that tech. So they're

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Speaker 1: actually taking kind of a lower tech approach by repurposing

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Speaker 1: stuff that was never meant to do the things that

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Speaker 1: it now does. And we thought, what a cool idea,

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Speaker 1: So we want to kind of get into that and

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Speaker 1: sort of talk about the different ways people have tried

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Speaker 1: to to uh accomplish this and uh, I'm sorry you're

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Speaker 1: gonna say something, well, I was gonna say that. Uh

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Speaker 1: and in some of these places, uh, you know, these

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Speaker 1: are the places where, for example, cell phones have really

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Speaker 1: vaulted over land lines because a lot of a lot

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Speaker 1: of areas have not ever been wired for landline telephone used. So, um,

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Speaker 1: you know now that uh cell phone talk technology is

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Speaker 1: so inexpensive, I mean just the basic phone technology. Um,

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Speaker 1: and you know, many people in places such as uh,

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Speaker 1: you know Africa for example. UM, more of the rural areas. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, really it's a an urban versus rural thing anyway.

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Speaker 1: But but um, yeah, a lot of more the rural

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Speaker 1: places where or places that are more removed where there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of distance in between that area and an

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Speaker 1: urban area. UM. Uh cell phone usage. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: easier to put up the towers than it is to

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Speaker 1: wire those places for landlines. So um you know that

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Speaker 1: In doing research for other podcasts where we've talked about phones. UM,

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Speaker 1: I've just run across stories what they've said, Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: cell phone usage per capita maybe higher in some of

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Speaker 1: these other places, simply because everybody's got a cell phone.

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Speaker 1: They never had a landline phone. Right, it's now that

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Speaker 1: they dropped one for the other. It's that they completely

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Speaker 1: leap frogged. Yeah, and and and and the play and

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Speaker 1: some of these inventions that we're going to talk about

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Speaker 1: um or these technologies. Uh, they may not necessarily have

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Speaker 1: uh for example, electricity seven, but they might be able

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Speaker 1: to repurpose some of these other things uh inexpensively to

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Speaker 1: improve their lives through this other technology. And it is

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Speaker 1: a lot of it is very inventive. I actually saw

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Speaker 1: Apollo thirteen invoked in one of the articles that I

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Speaker 1: was searching for because, um, if you know the story

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Speaker 1: that was the mission where um, they the astronauts had serious,

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Speaker 1: serious problem because they're some of the technology failed, um

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Speaker 1: and they had to come up with other stuff on

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Speaker 1: the fly. I know that was actually the uh, the

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Speaker 1: genesis of the idea for the TV show Scrap Peep Challenge,

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Speaker 1: which in the United States was Junkyard Wars, where you

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Speaker 1: had to just throw some other stuff together and had

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Speaker 1: sort of this the same idea you would you would

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Speaker 1: you would go through a junkyard and you would salvage

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Speaker 1: different machines in order to build something that was specifically

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Speaker 1: intended to achieve a a particular goal which was established

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Speaker 1: at the beginning of the show. So you would have

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Speaker 1: a goal like it might be traversed this this landscape here,

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Speaker 1: and you're going to have to be able to go up,

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Speaker 1: you know, a twenty degree incline, and there's going to

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Speaker 1: be a section that's gonna be rocky, and there might

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Speaker 1: even be a section where you have to travel across water.

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Speaker 1: So you have to build a machine that's capable capable

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Speaker 1: of doing all those things, but all you have is

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Speaker 1: whatever is in this junkyard. Yeah, and of course they

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Speaker 1: did up mids TV, so they'd end up seeding the

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Speaker 1: junkyard a handful of necessary parts. But is if nobody ever,

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Speaker 1: you know, they don't know everything that's in the junkyard,

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Speaker 1: I'm sure they go, well, it turns out that there

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Speaker 1: isn't any of this stuff and we're kind of stuck.

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Speaker 1: So it would make it would not make for interesting television,

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Speaker 1: so they would they would put in things in there.

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Speaker 1: But here's the thing is that people are really inventive, right,

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Speaker 1: and they can come up with solutions that you do

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Speaker 1: not anticipate. So even if you were to seed a

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Speaker 1: junkyard with things that you think, oh, well, clearly, they'll

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Speaker 1: want to build a device that can do this by

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Speaker 1: using this, this, and this, it may turn out that

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Speaker 1: they end up getting stuff that you did not see

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Speaker 1: that junkyard with and they build something that works, you know,

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Speaker 1: as well or perhaps even better than what you had

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Speaker 1: conceived of when you were seating it. Because people adapt

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Speaker 1: to the situation they are in, and they are very

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Speaker 1: quick to adapt their technology as well. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: we have seen that in developing nations, and a lot

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Speaker 1: of the projects we're gonna be talking about kind of

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Speaker 1: they didn't start this process. They just saw something that

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Speaker 1: was happening and decided to help it along. Uh. And

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Speaker 1: there are a couple of organizations I want to mention

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Speaker 1: before we even get into specifics. One of those is

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Speaker 1: called Random Hacks of Kindness and another is called Geeks

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Speaker 1: Without Bounds, And both of these organizations are dedicated to

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Speaker 1: helping developing nations through various hack projects. Although and both

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Speaker 1: of those cases, they are more focused on the software

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Speaker 1: side of things. So, like you were saying, you know,

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Speaker 1: cell phone use being much more prevalent than landline use.

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Speaker 1: A lot of these involve apps for phones that would

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Speaker 1: alert people to things that affect them in their daily lives. Um,

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Speaker 1: and things that other people just wouldn't think of because

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Speaker 1: it's not something that affects us, right, So a lot

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Speaker 1: of these are programs that would not that that are

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Speaker 1: again on that software side, that are not about hardware hacks.

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Speaker 1: We're really focusing mostly on hardware hacks today, although some

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Speaker 1: other stuff might pop up to yeah, this is um.

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Speaker 1: Also keep in mind that a lot of the technology

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Speaker 1: that that can be used for ther you know, it's

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Speaker 1: perfectly good technology. Um, you know, we're not talking necessarily

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Speaker 1: about junk. Although it might be things that other people

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Speaker 1: have cast off as being obsolete. In some cases it's

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Speaker 1: you know, completely functional and uh you know, there's there's

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Speaker 1: no reason to overdo it. Yeah, there's some cases where

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Speaker 1: it's not even repurposing in the sense of making something

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Speaker 1: do something it wasn't meant to do, like repurposing, just

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Speaker 1: as in reusing. So there are a lot of these

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Speaker 1: programs that allow you to do things like donate your

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Speaker 1: old electronics to various programs, so like old computers are.

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Speaker 1: That's the perfect example. It might be a computer that

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Speaker 1: you think is obsolete because it can't run the latest

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Speaker 1: stuff that you like to run, but for a developing nation,

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Speaker 1: it might be a very useful asset. But we're really

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Speaker 1: looking at in this podcast technology that's been turned into

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Speaker 1: doing something else. And I was going to start with

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Speaker 1: Maya Pedal and Maya All I'm I'm assuming that's the

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Speaker 1: organization that Adam was talking about in his letter, because

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Speaker 1: Maya Pedal is the is a Guatemalan organization that takes

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Speaker 1: donated bikes, mainly donated from the United States and from Canada,

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Speaker 1: and they take those bikes to either recondition them and

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Speaker 1: sell them or they use the parts to build what

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Speaker 1: they call and I'm going to completely butcher the pronunciation

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Speaker 1: of this biking mackinas or bike powered machines pedal powered machines.

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Speaker 1: And so what they're doing is they're actually taking these

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Speaker 1: bikes apart to some extent, and using that pedal power.

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Speaker 1: So instead of it turning a wheel, it's turning some

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Speaker 1: other mechanical part to accomplish a task that they might

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Speaker 1: otherwise not have a mechanical opportunity to to address it,

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Speaker 1: like things like and then simple stuff you know, Adam

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Speaker 1: and mentioned things like a washing machine. Well that's a

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Speaker 1: that's a perfect example. You've got a big tub that

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Speaker 1: you put the water in, the soap in, the clothing in,

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Speaker 1: and you have an agitator in there, something that turns

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Speaker 1: around and moves the clothing so that it creates this

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Speaker 1: agitation which will help the soap and water work out

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Speaker 1: all the soil and everything else that's in the clothing.

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Speaker 1: You have that agitator hooked up through a series of

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Speaker 1: of gears and chains or belts to a pedal system

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Speaker 1: on a bike, and it might even have the back

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Speaker 1: half of the bike more or less intact, where you've

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Speaker 1: got the seat and everything, and you sit down the seat,

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Speaker 1: you pedal the petals, it turns the agitator and it

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Speaker 1: ends up washing clothing that way. There's actually a guy

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Speaker 1: in Texas who had um a blog. The last entry

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Speaker 1: I saw was in two but there was a guy

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Speaker 1: in Texas named John Wells who was building. He built

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Speaker 1: something very similar to that called the He called it

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Speaker 1: the bike O Worsher Worsher spelled w O R s

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Speaker 1: h e R and through Texas Fashion UH. It was

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Speaker 1: part of the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living

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Speaker 1: Field Laboratory. So the idea was that he was building

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Speaker 1: stuff that would allow you to have a sustainable life

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Speaker 1: where you're not depending so much on things like electricity.

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Speaker 1: And it was a really cool project. But it's very

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Speaker 1: similar to the stuff you see in these developing nations now.

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Speaker 1: In the case of Texas, obviously it's not due to

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Speaker 1: lack of electricity. It's more of kind of a an

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Speaker 1: UH environmentally friendly lifestyle that he wants to adopt, right

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Speaker 1: But in the case of Guatemala, it may be necessity

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Speaker 1: because not all places in rural rural areas of these

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Speaker 1: these countries have access to regular electricity. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

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Speaker 1: And one of the things that struck me and doing

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Speaker 1: research for this podcast is the similarity of some of

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Speaker 1: these inventions to things that you might see in the

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Speaker 1: pages of Make magazine or among the er community, um

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Speaker 1: you know, talking about different bike machines. For example, I

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Speaker 1: remember watching a video probably more than a year ago

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Speaker 1: now where uh, some some folks in San Francisco basically

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Speaker 1: collect old bikes and what they do is they cut

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Speaker 1: them apart and make new bikes out of them. I

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Speaker 1: mean they're they're strange contraptions, things with different size wheels

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Speaker 1: and all sorts of others. Mostly too. It's like an

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Speaker 1: art bike's community, and it's mostly because they can and

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Speaker 1: and want to have fun doing that. But you can,

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Speaker 1: you can do the same kinds of things to to

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Speaker 1: uh uh, to create sustainable UM machinery. Yeah. I saw

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Speaker 1: a great video from the Maya Pedal Group where they

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Speaker 1: showed a de grainer and it was what it was

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Speaker 1: was it was this it looked like the back half

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Speaker 1: of a bicycle. But then there was this shoot that

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Speaker 1: you could feed uh corn through corn that's actually still

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Speaker 1: on the cob, uncooked corn, and you would feed it

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Speaker 1: through and had a series of gears that would end

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Speaker 1: up pulling the kernels off the cob so that you

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Speaker 1: could de grain that corn very very efficiently. You just

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Speaker 1: turn the you know, you're peddling, that's what's turning the

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Speaker 1: gears and uh. It was so much faster than doing

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Speaker 1: it by hand, and it actually saves a lot of

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Speaker 1: time and effort. So that was another example. But they

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Speaker 1: had lots of other ones that I saw. One that

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Speaker 1: was a a pedal powered blender, and they were showing

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Speaker 1: how they were using aloe plants. They would take the

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Speaker 1: skin off the allow plant and chop it up, put

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Speaker 1: it in with some water and a blender, uh, and

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Speaker 1: then uh start peddling. And they would use this to

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Speaker 1: create things like shampoos that they could then sell, and

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Speaker 1: it was a way of generating money because these are

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Speaker 1: in general, the communities that these these projects are benefiting

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Speaker 1: are incredibly poor compared to the lives that most of

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Speaker 1: the people in the west, uh, like the developed nations

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Speaker 1: are used to. So for example, for for me and Chris,

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Speaker 1: you know, the thought of Uh, the reason why these

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Speaker 1: devices are so important is because they they take away

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Speaker 1: the reliance upon things like kerosene, which might cost four

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Speaker 1: dollars a week, and that is prohibitively expensive. I mean

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Speaker 1: that is that's a totally different world than the world

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Speaker 1: we live in. Yeah. Basically, if you're listening to this podcast,

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Speaker 1: you know this, this is kind of a different different experience. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, the and and there was a lot of

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Speaker 1: other examples of the same sort of thing, mostly, you know,

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Speaker 1: all these really cool versions of bikes, uh, to do

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Speaker 1: things like make tiles. There was a bicycle bicycle powered

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Speaker 1: thresher for for harvesting crops. There there were water pumps.

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Speaker 1: I saw one where a guy was riding a bike

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Speaker 1: and water was coming out of a of a pipe

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Speaker 1: and it was it was like a bicycle powered well yeah, um.

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Speaker 1: I actually ran across an invention from the Nippon Basic

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Speaker 1: company in Japan called the cyclo Clean and basically it's

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Speaker 1: it's designed to you add it to the bike. It's

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Speaker 1: kind of hard to describe, you might want to look

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Speaker 1: it up, but it's it's got water containers so somebody

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Speaker 1: would ride there by and it goes on your bike. Uh,

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Speaker 1: an existing bike, so it's not unmodified if you will,

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Speaker 1: you don't want to cut a bike apart or anything

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Speaker 1: like that as a moving bike. And uh so you

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Speaker 1: ride to a place a source of water. Now, if

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Speaker 1: you think about lakes or streams, creeks, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: most of us listening to this podcast probably know all

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Speaker 1: sorts of micro organisms live in that water. A lot

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Speaker 1: of it isn't safe to drink, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: people around the world don't have access to clean water. Um.

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Speaker 1: So what this does is you pour the water into

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Speaker 1: the containers and as you uh you know, using the

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Speaker 1: kinetic energy of pedaling the bike, the Cyclo clean will

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Speaker 1: filter the water. So it actually creates potable water by

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Speaker 1: the energy of the bike, and it's it's portable and potable.

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Speaker 1: So it's that that's a pretty nifty um, I guess,

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Speaker 1: just potent pot but um, actually, I just want to

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Speaker 1: point out before we move on real quick. UM, A

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Speaker 1: lot of the devices that I found, uh in researching

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Speaker 1: this episode are not things we can talk about because

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Speaker 1: they're they're invented, they're intended to be inexpensive, and they're new,

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Speaker 1: so it's not really repurposing technology. There are so many

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Speaker 1: really cool devices, it might it might also be worth

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Speaker 1: investigating it again in the future. Some of the really

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Speaker 1: cool devices that are you know, they'll be like a

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Speaker 1: twenty dollar or something and it completely does a very

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Speaker 1: useful function and speeds life. And I'm like, oh, man,

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Speaker 1: if I could just use like we you know, Dean

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Speaker 1: came in the whole thing about you know, his his

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Speaker 1: water projects, which I think we talked about in the

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Speaker 1: Cayman podcast, but that was years ago anyway, So I

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Speaker 1: wanted to also mention, Yeah, Maya Pedal if you if

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Speaker 1: you live in the United States or Canada and you're

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Speaker 1: interested in donating an old bicycle to this. Maya Pedal

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Speaker 1: does have its own website and you can learn more

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Speaker 1: about the program and how you can participate. They also

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Speaker 1: invite people to come down and visit their facilities in Guatemala. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: you can even work there for a while, volunteer there

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Speaker 1: for a while, and help do things like make repairs

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Speaker 1: or design new machines. Um. It's very much a hacker

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Speaker 1: culture in the sense of they have they have specific

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Speaker 1: tasks they need to achieve, they have a specific set

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Speaker 1: of resources, they they they are at their disposal and

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Speaker 1: they have to find the way to make the resources

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Speaker 1: meet their their needs. So they're not interested in making

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Speaker 1: it look pretty. They're not interested in any of that.

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Speaker 1: Their aesthetics are not important. Yeah, it's all about achieving

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Speaker 1: the goal. And and that's something that appeals to a

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Speaker 1: lot of hackers who are all about, hey, yeah, I

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Speaker 1: know that this was meant to do this one thing,

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Speaker 1: but you know, if we just changed it a little bit,

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Speaker 1: we could totally do this other thing. Let's see if

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Speaker 1: we can make it happen. And uh, you read a

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Speaker 1: lot about that kind of stuff in these in these stories. Um,

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Speaker 1: there was another one that I wanted to mention, very

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Speaker 1: similar kind of idea again using bicycles. A fellow named

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Speaker 1: how Watts invented something designed to help countries that are

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Speaker 1: all about dealing with e waste. So, you know, old electronics,

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Speaker 1: if you're right, yeah, if you've ever if you've ever

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Speaker 1: tried to get rid of your electronics, maybe maybe you've

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Speaker 1: tried to put them in some sort of e waste

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Speaker 1: recycle program. One of the problems of of some of

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Speaker 1: those programs, not all of them, they're not all created equal,

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Speaker 1: but some of those programs, yes, some of these programs

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Speaker 1: ship that stuff off to various developing nations where they

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Speaker 1: have an industry all around recycling that material. And it's

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Speaker 1: mostly about recapturing the metals that are used in those products,

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Speaker 1: mainly copper, yeah, and lead to that's another one of

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Speaker 1: the big ones, recapturing the copper and lead that's used

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Speaker 1: in these electronics. It can be a very dangerous thing

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Speaker 1: to do if you aren't being if you're if you're

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Speaker 1: not following particular steps right and and it can release

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Speaker 1: a lot of toxic elements into the environment and also

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Speaker 1: affect people's health. Yeah. The thing is too that in

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Speaker 1: in some of these cases, the people who are disassembling

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Speaker 1: the electronics aren't given the proper tools to do that,

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Speaker 1: and some I've read about people who had to put

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Speaker 1: materials into a fire essentially intending to melt it all down,

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Speaker 1: and of course in doing so, it releases toxic chemical

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Speaker 1: toxic chemicals, uh, into this the soil um people in

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Speaker 1: the atmosphere. The people in the immediate area have health

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Speaker 1: problems as a result of the metals leaching into their soil.

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Speaker 1: It can it can affect areas even further out from

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Speaker 1: the immediate area. It's it's one of those. In a way,

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Speaker 1: it really shows that environmental concerns and ecology go beyond

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Speaker 1: just the point. Like there's a there's like a ring effect,

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Speaker 1: right you you move one ring further out from the center,

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Speaker 1: and you can still see where the effects are and

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Speaker 1: they might not be a severe and they may not

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Speaker 1: be the same effects as you would see right at

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Speaker 1: the point of contact, but it's still negative. Well, in

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Speaker 1: this case, very it's exactly what you're talking about. You know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of these UH countries, what they do is

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Speaker 1: that they will use fire to melt stuff down. Like

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Speaker 1: like let's say copper wire that's insulated, So you've got

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Speaker 1: a rubber insulation around copper wire. Well, they want to

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Speaker 1: get to the copper. They want to get the rubber

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Speaker 1: off of there. And what's an efficient way of doing that. Well,

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Speaker 1: you could burn the rubber off, but that can release

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Speaker 1: a lot of toxic chemicals into the atmost sphere and

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Speaker 1: get it into the ground as well. UH. And then

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Speaker 1: you also have essentially you have burnt copper, which is

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Speaker 1: not as valuable as copper that has not been put

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Speaker 1: through this process. Chris and I will be back to

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about this repurposing technology for

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Speaker 1: developing countries idea of First, let's take a quick break.

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Speaker 1: So what Watts did was he built a machine that

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Speaker 1: was again a bicycle powered machine where he called it

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Speaker 1: the E Source and it has a grinder in it

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Speaker 1: and it has also a metal separator. Uh it's it's

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Speaker 1: it's like a centrifuge in a way. And what you

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Speaker 1: do is you put the copper wire into the grinder

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Speaker 1: and you pedal the petals. Some grinders actually grind that

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Speaker 1: up so that the rubber and the and the copper

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00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:00,919
Speaker 1: come apart. It shreds the copper y air, so you

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00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:05,080
Speaker 1: get smaller segments of copper wire and the rubbers is

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00:23:05,119 --> 00:23:09,680
Speaker 1: pulled right off of the copper. The spinning plate actually

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Speaker 1: spends so that it separates out the copper from the rubbers.

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Speaker 1: So then you've got these rubber pellets on one side

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Speaker 1: and you've got the copper on the other side. And

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Speaker 1: it means that you no longer have the danger of

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Speaker 1: burning this stuff and releasing the toxic chemicals, and you

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Speaker 1: can actually recycle the rubber as well. So it it

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Speaker 1: also adds a second level of revenue to this process,

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Speaker 1: which before was all about the metal because you know,

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Speaker 1: you couldn't use the rubber after you've burnt it off.

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Speaker 1: But now you've got this these rubber pellets that you

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00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,960
Speaker 1: can actually use in other forms of recycling. So it

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00:23:45,080 --> 00:23:49,199
Speaker 1: adds benefit to the process and it takes away some

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Speaker 1: of the more dangerous parts of recycling electronics. So that

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Speaker 1: was his invention. There's actually video on the web. He's

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Speaker 1: got a website about the source. So if you and

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Speaker 1: it's E S O U R C E. If you

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00:24:05,040 --> 00:24:07,320
Speaker 1: do a search for that, you can actually find his

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Speaker 1: website and learn more about it and the project that

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Speaker 1: he's been working on. It's really really interesting. So that's

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Speaker 1: another example of again using bicycles. There are a lot

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Speaker 1: of those, because bicycles are one of those that's a

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Speaker 1: piece of technology that's common around the world. And uh

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Speaker 1: and and it's one of those that um it's it's

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Speaker 1: so much more accessible than other kinds of technology, and

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Speaker 1: so it's not dependent upon electricity or fuel it's got

430
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:38,120
Speaker 1: uh it's it's really attractive for these communities that might

431
00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: not otherwise be able to afford the sort of technology

432
00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 1: that can do whatever it is these machines do. Yeah.

433
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,800
Speaker 1: In in a similar vein. You actually wrote about one

434
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:53,200
Speaker 1: of the technologies I wanted to talk about. UM and uh,

435
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 1: you know, one of the serious problems that they have

436
00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,639
Speaker 1: in some developing nations or a lot of developing nations,

437
00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:01,720
Speaker 1: I should say, is uh uh you know babies who

438
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:06,840
Speaker 1: are are born prematurely um and uh you know, uh,

439
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:10,880
Speaker 1: they need infubation to to keep them warm. And uh,

440
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 1: I think it's really clever. There's Jonathan wrote an article

441
00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,639
Speaker 1: for the website how Stuff Works dot com on on

442
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:23,160
Speaker 1: using engines to serve as incubators. Um. It's really really

443
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:27,679
Speaker 1: cool stuff. Basically, uh, you know they uh it uses

444
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 1: a an engine to to generate the heat, but um,

445
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:35,399
Speaker 1: it also has a battery powered back up. And it

446
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 1: was actually developed by the Center for Integration of Medicine

447
00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:45,400
Speaker 1: and Innovative Technology or SIMMIT, and a a company called

448
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 1: Design That Matters UM, which uh you know is into

449
00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:52,199
Speaker 1: all kinds of different design really. Um, they had a

450
00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:55,680
Speaker 1: basically they had a contest to see who could who

451
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,639
Speaker 1: could come up with the best uh contraption for this

452
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 1: and it you know uses um basically different parts of

453
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 1: the automotive assembly for you know, um uh there's a

454
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,800
Speaker 1: handrail built into it. For example, and there you know,

455
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 1: they're parts that that come that are not part of it,

456
00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,439
Speaker 1: the automotive kit, but the rest of it. You know,

457
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:24,480
Speaker 1: they use the headlights to generate heat and HV a

458
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:31,240
Speaker 1: C form you know, to stir the heat around. Yeah,

459
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,400
Speaker 1: it's it's that was definitely an interesting project to read

460
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: about because again it was uh it was this idea

461
00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 1: that it's not just the problem of um of getting

462
00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,280
Speaker 1: the tech to them, it's getting tech that is easy

463
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:50,480
Speaker 1: to maintain. And it's a lot easier to maintain the

464
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 1: basic parts of an automobile. Again, and technology that has

465
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:58,160
Speaker 1: fairly wide distribution than it is for something that's incredibly specialized.

466
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 1: So if a hospital sent uh A a high tech

467
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:08,199
Speaker 1: incubator to a developing nation and that incubator were to

468
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: break down, as you know technology tends to do over time,

469
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 1: it's a lot harder for that. It may be impossible

470
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,400
Speaker 1: for that that organization to make repairs. It may take

471
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 1: months to get a broken machine fixed when it's got

472
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,359
Speaker 1: that level of sophistication, and the tools that the people

473
00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 1: have don't meet that level of sophistication. So being able

474
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:34,600
Speaker 1: to create technology that can accomplish the same goal, but

475
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,440
Speaker 1: but is built from much more basic types of tech

476
00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 1: that have a lot more distribution around the world. Means

477
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:46,000
Speaker 1: that you have made it far more accessible. Because again,

478
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: in fact I read this, and this was from Make magazine,

479
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: there was a great article by Paul spin Rad called

480
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:55,840
Speaker 1: design for hack in Medicine, and in that there was

481
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,359
Speaker 1: a little fact that said about medical technology that reaches

482
00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:02,399
Speaker 1: poor country is hand me down equipment designed for first

483
00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:06,200
Speaker 1: world facilities. That's the problem because these are not first

484
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:09,679
Speaker 1: world facilities that these these devices are going to, so

485
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 1: there's limited use there. Um. You don't you don't go

486
00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:15,320
Speaker 1: in and plug something into the wall in some of

487
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:18,400
Speaker 1: these cases. You don't have a wall to plug into

488
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: in some of these cases, so you have to come

489
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 1: up with a new way of powering that. And I

490
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:25,960
Speaker 1: think I misspoke a few minutes ago when I was

491
00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:28,199
Speaker 1: talking about using the car engines. They don't, you know,

492
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:31,359
Speaker 1: put the kid on the engine. That would not be

493
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 1: very good. Um. Now they used the engines for parts. Um,

494
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,600
Speaker 1: And that's because the the you know, people have the

495
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:42,360
Speaker 1: tech around and generally people know how to repair a car,

496
00:28:42,560 --> 00:28:45,480
Speaker 1: so they know what the different pieces do, and uh,

497
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: you know, the parts would be available and then, uh,

498
00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about a fellow

499
00:28:51,200 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: named Jose Gomez Marquez. Now he's really looked into this

500
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 1: medical issue about creating medical equipment for countries that do

501
00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:07,800
Speaker 1: not have first world medical facilities, and uh, there's a

502
00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 1: whole list of different kinds of technology that he and

503
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: his team have come up with, uh to help out

504
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: these countries. One of those was a device that actually

505
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 1: uses sunlight to sterilize surgical tools, which again that's that's

506
00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,240
Speaker 1: phenomenal and according to the articles is it uses a bucket,

507
00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 1: a pressure cooker, and one forty pocket sized mirrors, which

508
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 1: all of which were purchased out of a Nicaraguan market,

509
00:29:37,800 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: and then they built out this device that uses sun

510
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 1: sunlight to end up heating these surgical tools so they

511
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 1: are sterilized because they don't have electricity or at least

512
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: not enough electricity to power a regular autoclave for sterilizing tools,

513
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 1: and that if they were to go with one that

514
00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,000
Speaker 1: ran on fuel, it would cost them so much money.

515
00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 1: And again we're talking small amounts of money for most

516
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:05,200
Speaker 1: of us, but for these communities it's it's prohibitively expensive

517
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,480
Speaker 1: to run those sort of devices, which means that you

518
00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: are risking some major medical catastrophes if you do not

519
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 1: have properly sterilized surgical tools. You know, you're talking about

520
00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:20,400
Speaker 1: possibility for terrible infections that could really make patient mortality

521
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:24,120
Speaker 1: rates skyrocket. So this was a way of creating a

522
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:28,560
Speaker 1: device that doesn't depend on electricity. It just uses sunlight,

523
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 1: which you know too, it's much easier to to to

524
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:36,520
Speaker 1: get hold of than it would for something like electricity.

525
00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 1: So that was a good example. But then the article

526
00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 1: actually goes into other things that were developed specifically for

527
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: this UH, for this community and communities like it through

528
00:30:51,800 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 1: m I T. Which was this idea of medi kits.

529
00:30:55,240 --> 00:30:58,720
Speaker 1: Have you read about these UM I did? Yeah. Gmess

530
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 1: Marquez is UH program director for m I T s

531
00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:06,280
Speaker 1: Innovations and International Health Program. And then the idea behind

532
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:09,840
Speaker 1: these kits and this program is that um these these

533
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:15,600
Speaker 1: parts and pieces are available two UH physicians and who

534
00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:17,640
Speaker 1: are working in these areas, they might be able to

535
00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:22,040
Speaker 1: find that, and so the point was to teach them

536
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:29,239
Speaker 1: how to use everyday stuff to make equipment that they

537
00:31:29,240 --> 00:31:31,400
Speaker 1: would have. You know, they would be familiar with his

538
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 1: physicians in the first world, they would already be familiar

539
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 1: with that the pre made, manufactured version of this. Now

540
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 1: that he's his group wants to teach people how to

541
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 1: take uh these parts and do it themselves on on

542
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: the fly, right from what's on hand. And in fact,

543
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 1: uh they they have these med kits that come in

544
00:31:51,520 --> 00:31:57,440
Speaker 1: in five different variations. So there's drug delivery, lateral flow diagnostics,

545
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 1: lab on a chip, vital signs, agricultural prosthetics, which the

546
00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: agricultural prosthetics one is pretty pretty wild to me, but

547
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:08,800
Speaker 1: we'll we'll, I'll talk about that in a second. Anyway,

548
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: it's talking about taking a lot of like Chris was saying,

549
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,320
Speaker 1: a lot of basic elements that you can find in

550
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:19,520
Speaker 1: other forms of machinery and electronics, So talking about things

551
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: like um plungers or bicycle pumps or compressors, tilt sensors,

552
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff, these basic elements, and then teaching

553
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 1: people different ways of putting those things together to accomplish

554
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,240
Speaker 1: whatever your goals are. And in fact, they talked a

555
00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:41,360
Speaker 1: lot about how they learned about using toys parts from

556
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 1: toys as medical equipment, so things like a remote controlled

557
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 1: helicopter and removing some of the machinery from that in

558
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: order to create a medical device I talked about even

559
00:32:53,240 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 1: there was an electric mechanical ferris wheel toy that could

560
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:02,560
Speaker 1: be double as a centrifew just with some modification. Chris

561
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:04,160
Speaker 1: and I have a little bit more to talk about

562
00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 1: on this particular topic, but before we get to that,

563
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:17,640
Speaker 1: let's take another quick break. The comparable medical equipment if

564
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,400
Speaker 1: this country were to try and buy, it would be

565
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,360
Speaker 1: really expensive, like we're talking about really sophisticated medical equipment,

566
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 1: but that you could accomplish the same outcome with these

567
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:31,080
Speaker 1: low tech approaches just by repurposing the technology and suddenly

568
00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: the cost drops dramatically. So suddenly these these things that

569
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: were out of reach for these medical facilities become attainable.

570
00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:41,760
Speaker 1: It just means that you have to learn how to

571
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 1: adapt this technology so that they can do what you

572
00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: needed to do. And the article was so fascinating to

573
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:53,120
Speaker 1: me because it talks so much about how they found

574
00:33:53,560 --> 00:33:56,360
Speaker 1: They discovered that there were people in the field already

575
00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:59,520
Speaker 1: doing this right. It had there are people who were

576
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:03,160
Speaker 1: taking aquipment and saying all right, well, I'm just gonna

577
00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,280
Speaker 1: take this one piece of equipment I have, and I'm

578
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: going to alter it in this way so it can

579
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:10,319
Speaker 1: do what I did needed to do better than it

580
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 1: can right now, because the the use cases might be

581
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 1: very specific and the equipment might be very generalized. And

582
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:20,560
Speaker 1: so you might have a generalized piece of equipment that

583
00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:22,799
Speaker 1: can do a lot of stuff, but it can't do

584
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 1: it as well as a modified piece of equipment could.

585
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:29,240
Speaker 1: And they were starting to see how people were modifying

586
00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:32,160
Speaker 1: things and improvising out in the field in order to

587
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 1: make repairs or to make modifications to get better results.

588
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:42,600
Speaker 1: Uh is really really interesting and UH also really speaks

589
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:46,480
Speaker 1: a lot to human ingenuity. Yeah. Well, I think I

590
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: think for somebody who would be trained, um, in a

591
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:54,520
Speaker 1: modern hospital to do medical care, you would be thinking

592
00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:58,480
Speaker 1: of the technology that that we have available to us.

593
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 1: And I think that the trick is to get people

594
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:06,719
Speaker 1: to see the similarities between everyday stuff and the high

595
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,120
Speaker 1: tech equivalent. Um. You know the photo I I saw

596
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 1: in the article I read about about this program. Uh,

597
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 1: they show him using a a drinking straw for a pipette. Now,

598
00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:21,719
Speaker 1: you know, I would think, uh, myself, and I'm not

599
00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:24,440
Speaker 1: a medical professional by any stretch of the imagination, but

600
00:35:24,560 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 1: you know, having elementary chemistry classes in high school, thinking,

601
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:30,839
Speaker 1: you know, well that that's kind of you know, that's

602
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 1: that's not as scientific and it's not as sanitary. But uh,

603
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:38,680
Speaker 1: you know, if if if you do things carefully and

604
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 1: you know what you're doing, you can still do a

605
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 1: lot with that technology available. And that's I think that's

606
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:46,839
Speaker 1: the point is to draw that parallels that you see. Yes,

607
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,000
Speaker 1: I mean you are achieving the same goal with this

608
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:53,400
Speaker 1: everyday technology that you would be with this highly precise

609
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 1: manufactured stuff, and you can do it with what you

610
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: have and it will will help people. Um. It is

611
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: worth pointing out that a lot of there are are

612
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:09,800
Speaker 1: initiatives and non governmental organizations that are repurposing uh less

613
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,640
Speaker 1: modern technology, you know, stuff that's five years out of date,

614
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:17,280
Speaker 1: ten years out of date, so there's still perfectly viable

615
00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:20,279
Speaker 1: and and sending it to to other countries that don't

616
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:23,239
Speaker 1: have access to those technologies, which is which is you

617
00:36:23,239 --> 00:36:26,040
Speaker 1: know great, rather than scrapping it. Um, you know, somebody

618
00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:27,840
Speaker 1: else is able to put it to use, but not

619
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:31,800
Speaker 1: everyone can use that. So these these initiatives are certainly

620
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:34,640
Speaker 1: very valuable. Yeah, And getting back to the medicate stuff,

621
00:36:35,120 --> 00:36:38,160
Speaker 1: what the the team discovered was that when they started

622
00:36:38,160 --> 00:36:41,279
Speaker 1: to distribute these medicates, Uh, let me read a quote

623
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 1: from the articles as we designed the limits of our

624
00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:46,080
Speaker 1: early kids carefully, but when users began to snap on,

625
00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:49,359
Speaker 1: extend and test their creations, something emerged that we did

626
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 1: not anticipate. They hacked our kids, which is what we

627
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 1: were talking about, Like they made the kids modular, like

628
00:36:56,560 --> 00:36:58,839
Speaker 1: these ideas of these modular kits, so that you could

629
00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:02,040
Speaker 1: create different as all as like the medical version of

630
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:06,080
Speaker 1: Ardwin Knows Stuff. It was a very modular approach to

631
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:10,600
Speaker 1: creating medical equipment. But they were going beyond the modular

632
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:13,640
Speaker 1: approach and adding in elements that were not part of

633
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:17,160
Speaker 1: the kit, or physically altering parts of the kit in

634
00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 1: order to do what they needed it to do. And

635
00:37:20,560 --> 00:37:23,319
Speaker 1: they started to see that, okay, well, with this sort

636
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,320
Speaker 1: of mentality, which makes perfect sense. You know that they

637
00:37:26,360 --> 00:37:29,359
Speaker 1: are trying to to meet the needs of whatever their

638
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:33,120
Speaker 1: community happens to be. They said, all right, we have

639
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: to think to design these kits with hacking in mind,

640
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: knowing that the stuff is going to get hacked when

641
00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:41,760
Speaker 1: we send it out. We have to design the kits.

642
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 1: And they said, while it's impossible to predict every type

643
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 1: of device a kit can produce, you can start with

644
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,799
Speaker 1: a core set of devices start to add degrees of

645
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:53,600
Speaker 1: freedom to that core and then try to anticipate in

646
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 1: design areas in which those degrees will be hacked. And

647
00:37:56,480 --> 00:37:58,920
Speaker 1: the reason why they want to make sure that they

648
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,880
Speaker 1: take this into account is one so that the devices

649
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 1: are as accessible and useful as possible, but too, and

650
00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:10,080
Speaker 1: possibly more importantly, they want to put safety measures in

651
00:38:10,120 --> 00:38:14,279
Speaker 1: place so that if you were to hack this medikit,

652
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:17,359
Speaker 1: you would not end up creating a device that could

653
00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,959
Speaker 1: cause more harm than good. So that was their other

654
00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 1: concern was that, all right, well, we want to make

655
00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: sure that whatever we design, it's not going to end

656
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:28,960
Speaker 1: up killing people when a hack goes wrong, because not

657
00:38:29,080 --> 00:38:33,839
Speaker 1: every time hackers know this, Not every attempt is a success.

658
00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,799
Speaker 1: Sometimes you take stuff apart and it just don't work

659
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,960
Speaker 1: no more. Uh, some of us. That's the only kind

660
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:43,359
Speaker 1: of hacker we are. I'm guilty of that. I can

661
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:46,840
Speaker 1: take things apart really well, putting it back together and

662
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:51,440
Speaker 1: making it work. Okay, it's a baby step process, people.

663
00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: So anyway, where did these extra pieces come from? I

664
00:38:55,280 --> 00:38:59,040
Speaker 1: don't even know what this fits in. UM. I wanted

665
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,759
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about the Agricultural Prosthetic medic Kit,

666
00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:05,319
Speaker 1: a flavor of med kits they had because that was

667
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:08,840
Speaker 1: one that I thought was kind of interesting. So the

668
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,480
Speaker 1: kit essentially has a universal gripper. So this is a

669
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,879
Speaker 1: device for people who have lost a limb and need

670
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 1: needs something in order to be able to uh to

671
00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:23,440
Speaker 1: to harvest crops. So it might be something so that

672
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:26,319
Speaker 1: you could pick fruit from a tree. But let's say

673
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:31,400
Speaker 1: you've lost a limb through some terrible injury or illness,

674
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:35,000
Speaker 1: and in some cases that would lead people not to

675
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: to want to hire you anymore because there because you're

676
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:40,879
Speaker 1: no longer as effective. So this is a This kit

677
00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:45,560
Speaker 1: came with a universal gripper made from PVC bicycle inner

678
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:49,800
Speaker 1: tubes and a soda bottle to attach most farm tools

679
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:53,839
Speaker 1: onto the arm or forearm of an amputee farmer. So

680
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,560
Speaker 1: the soda bottle was the part that fit over the

681
00:39:57,239 --> 00:40:00,640
Speaker 1: whatever part of the arm remains right, so that would

682
00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 1: fit on that, and then the rest would extend from

683
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:06,000
Speaker 1: the soda bottle out ending in the universe in the

684
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:09,680
Speaker 1: universal grippers that it could pull or grip onto whatever

685
00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:12,920
Speaker 1: it is you needed and uh and said. Each part

686
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:15,240
Speaker 1: of the kit follows the same three principles. Core device

687
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:19,280
Speaker 1: modifier device and consumables, um. And then it talked about

688
00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:22,759
Speaker 1: how and in various articles talked about how people who

689
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: received these kits even then would modify them further by

690
00:40:26,080 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 1: adding in other elements like other stuff to extend the

691
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:31,359
Speaker 1: arm even further than it was already meant to go,

692
00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:35,160
Speaker 1: so that it could help people reach crops that otherwise

693
00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:39,560
Speaker 1: would be out of their range. So again, people took

694
00:40:39,640 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: the stuff that were that was distributed and made even

695
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,120
Speaker 1: more modifications so that it was more useful for their

696
00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:51,040
Speaker 1: own daily lives. Uh, fascinating stuff. And and again I

697
00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:55,880
Speaker 1: mean the the ingenuity here, like people noticing that a

698
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 1: noisemaker in a toy could be used as an alarm

699
00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 1: system for a medical device, so that when something is

700
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 1: getting to a critical parameter, it goes noises made so

701
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,120
Speaker 1: that it alerts people. Things like that, like where they

702
00:41:10,160 --> 00:41:12,839
Speaker 1: don't have that specialized equipment, they're building it themselves. It's

703
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:15,960
Speaker 1: really interesting to me. Yeah, well that's that's what tech

704
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:18,600
Speaker 1: stuff is about. UM. You know, if you're long term listener,

705
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:21,359
Speaker 1: you know that Jonathan and I like to talk about

706
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 1: technology and people, how it how it affects people, And UM,

707
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:27,880
Speaker 1: I think this is this is really awesome because a

708
00:41:27,880 --> 00:41:31,480
Speaker 1: lot of these devices that people are taking apart are

709
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,759
Speaker 1: are either obsolete or are broken, and they're repurposing them

710
00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 1: and helping other people with that, and I just I

711
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:40,440
Speaker 1: just think that's absolutely fantastic. Yeah, it's it's not just ingenuity,

712
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:43,720
Speaker 1: but compassion and those two, those two elements coming together.

713
00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 1: That's that's like the best of humanity, right. If you're

714
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 1: talking about caring for other people and using your your

715
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:54,279
Speaker 1: creative endeavors to come up with new solutions, that's a

716
00:41:54,320 --> 00:41:57,120
Speaker 1: great story. And uh, and so guys, if you have

717
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:00,239
Speaker 1: interest in this, I highly recommend you look into some

718
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:03,000
Speaker 1: of these projects further and see maybe there's something you

719
00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 1: can help out with. Maybe there's something you can either

720
00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 1: donate money to, or even better, if you are able

721
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:11,320
Speaker 1: to donate your time or expertise to some of these projects,

722
00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:14,279
Speaker 1: you can make an enormous difference in the lives of

723
00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:18,080
Speaker 1: other people and and bring a help bring a better

724
00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:22,280
Speaker 1: living experience to people who really are having a totally

725
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:24,719
Speaker 1: different kind of life than the one most of us

726
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:27,399
Speaker 1: are used to. Yeah. I mean, even if it's it's

727
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:29,040
Speaker 1: just a small thing to you, it may make a

728
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,439
Speaker 1: real difference in someone else's life. That's true. So I'm

729
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,719
Speaker 1: glad that we had this discussion. I think that that's

730
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,560
Speaker 1: a good overview of the subject. Now there are a

731
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 1: lot more examples that are out there. We really just

732
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: covered some some pretty broad topics. But I do recommend

733
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:46,280
Speaker 1: you look into it if this is something that interests

734
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:49,080
Speaker 1: you and uh and maybe you'll find your passion like

735
00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:53,239
Speaker 1: Adam did. Who you know, he he really uprooted his

736
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:56,280
Speaker 1: entire life in order to pursue this, and that's that's amazing.

737
00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 1: Happiness Plunge. Indeed, in fact, that Happiness Plunge dot com folks,

738
00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:02,360
Speaker 1: if you want to take a look at his website

739
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 1: because it's it's a crazy, wonderful sort of thing to do. Um,

740
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:10,839
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that I am the kind of person

741
00:43:10,840 --> 00:43:13,600
Speaker 1: who could who could make that commitment. I am amazed

742
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:16,359
Speaker 1: at people who do, and thankful for them as well.

743
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:20,080
Speaker 1: And that wraps up this classic episode of tech Stuff.

744
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 1: If you guys have any suggestions for future episodes, why

745
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:25,920
Speaker 1: not get in touch with me let me know. You

746
00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:28,399
Speaker 1: can send me an email the addresses tech Stuff at

747
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:31,360
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com or pop on over to

748
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 1: our website that's tech Stuff podcast dot com. You will

749
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:37,600
Speaker 1: find an archive of all of our past shows. You'll

750
00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:40,960
Speaker 1: find links to our presence on social media, and you

751
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:43,839
Speaker 1: will also find a link to our online store, where

752
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:45,840
Speaker 1: every purchase you make goes to help this show and

753
00:43:45,840 --> 00:43:48,160
Speaker 1: we greatly appreciate it, and I will talk to you

754
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:55,560
Speaker 1: again really soon. Tex Stuff is a production of I

755
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,640
Speaker 1: Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my

756
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:02,520
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

757
00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:09,040
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H