1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,960
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.

2
00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,800
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with

3
00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:17,600
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,

4
00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:19,880
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poette,

5
00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:22,200
Speaker 1: and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com.

6
00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:25,040
Speaker 1: Sitting across from me as is usual, I albeit a

7
00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:28,440
Speaker 1: few minutes later than the typical, is senior writer Jonathan Strickland.

8
00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:32,760
Speaker 1: Hey there, and everybody, remember to tell Tyler he had

9
00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:36,640
Speaker 1: one thing to do today. That's an inside joke. We

10
00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,120
Speaker 1: are going to talk a little bit today. We're continuing

11
00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:43,960
Speaker 1: our series about reinventing and repurposing technology and cool and

12
00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:47,920
Speaker 1: interesting ways. Uh, we're gonna talk about something that's really

13
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,479
Speaker 1: kind of a a humanitarian sort of approach to hacking.

14
00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:54,960
Speaker 1: But before we really get into it, I wanted to

15
00:00:55,080 --> 00:01:01,520
Speaker 1: read something. It's a little listener mail. This is actual

16
00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:03,800
Speaker 1: listener mail. I have it in front of me. It's

17
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,399
Speaker 1: on real paper. What everything? What kind of strange technology

18
00:01:07,480 --> 00:01:11,080
Speaker 1: is that? I know? Not? It confuses and frightens me.

19
00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:14,240
Speaker 1: It's like it's appearing on a screen, but it's on

20
00:01:14,280 --> 00:01:18,959
Speaker 1: an actual physical sheet of paper. Who's it is? But

21
00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:22,360
Speaker 1: only because there's a lamp behind the letter that I'm reading.

22
00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:25,400
Speaker 1: This is a letter that we received from our super fan,

23
00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,760
Speaker 1: Adam Pervez, who actually has sent stuff to lots of

24
00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:31,959
Speaker 1: our podcast He's a big fan of How Stuff Works

25
00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:34,000
Speaker 1: podcasts in general. And if you guys have been to

26
00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:36,640
Speaker 1: our Facebook page, you may have seen a picture Chris

27
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,960
Speaker 1: and I were sporting a pair of alpaca wool hats,

28
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:43,720
Speaker 1: and these are hats that he picked up while he

29
00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:48,920
Speaker 1: was doing something he calls the happiness plunge. Packs are keen. Yeah,

30
00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,440
Speaker 1: so the happiness plunges this idea he had where he

31
00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,680
Speaker 1: decided he wanted to really follow his dreams and try

32
00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:57,000
Speaker 1: to make the world a better place than it was

33
00:01:57,080 --> 00:01:59,720
Speaker 1: when he got there. And so the idea is that

34
00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,360
Speaker 1: he quit his job and he started traveling through the

35
00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:06,320
Speaker 1: world really but mostly through Latin America when he started,

36
00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,640
Speaker 1: and trying to help different communities. As he traveled from

37
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:12,680
Speaker 1: place to place, he would listen to the House Stuff

38
00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:16,959
Speaker 1: Works podcasts in between those places. Well, I wanted to

39
00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:19,799
Speaker 1: read a paragraph from this letter. It's actually a fairly

40
00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:21,320
Speaker 1: long letter, so I'm not gonna read the whole thing,

41
00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,080
Speaker 1: but here's the paragraph. My goal is a travelers to

42
00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:26,079
Speaker 1: leave each place better than how I found it, which

43
00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:29,000
Speaker 1: I do by volunteering everywhere I go. I've had volunteering

44
00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,519
Speaker 1: experiences such as feeding the elderly at a nursing home

45
00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:35,320
Speaker 1: in Mexico, installing solar panels in rural Honduras, attracting book

46
00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:38,080
Speaker 1: donations for a rural library project in Peru, playing with

47
00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,240
Speaker 1: kids at orphanages in Costa Rica and Ecuador, designing a

48
00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:44,400
Speaker 1: financing strategy for a new NGO and El Salvador, and

49
00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:48,920
Speaker 1: marketing an organization that turns donated used bikes into bike machines,

50
00:02:49,320 --> 00:02:53,000
Speaker 1: washing machines, blenders, water well pumps, etcetera. In Guatemala. There's

51
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,080
Speaker 1: a lot I can offer as an engineer slash NBA

52
00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,720
Speaker 1: and there's more to the letter than that, but that's

53
00:02:58,880 --> 00:03:00,960
Speaker 1: kind of what gave us the idea for this podcast.

54
00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,040
Speaker 1: We want to talk about technology that people have taken

55
00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:09,280
Speaker 1: and repurposed to benefit people who are in developing nations

56
00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:11,960
Speaker 1: who don't have access to the same level of technology

57
00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,040
Speaker 1: we do. And in fact, if we were to give

58
00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:18,639
Speaker 1: those people the technology that we take for granted every day,

59
00:03:18,880 --> 00:03:22,079
Speaker 1: it would not necessarily be helpful because their conditions, their

60
00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:24,880
Speaker 1: day to day conditions are so vastly different from the

61
00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:28,160
Speaker 1: ones we are used to that they would not necessarily

62
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,400
Speaker 1: be able to take advantage of that tech. So they're

63
00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,600
Speaker 1: actually taking kind of a lower tech approach by repurposing

64
00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:36,960
Speaker 1: stuff that was never meant to do the things that

65
00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:40,400
Speaker 1: it now does. And we thought, what a cool idea,

66
00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:42,560
Speaker 1: So we wanted to kind of get into that and

67
00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:45,960
Speaker 1: sort of talk about the different ways people have tried

68
00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:50,280
Speaker 1: to to accomplish this. And uh, I'm sorry, you're gonna

69
00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,400
Speaker 1: say something, Well, I was gonna say that in in

70
00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:55,200
Speaker 1: some of these places, uh, you know, these are the

71
00:03:55,200 --> 00:03:58,440
Speaker 1: places where, for example, cell phones have really vaulted over

72
00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,880
Speaker 1: land lines because a lot of a lot of areas

73
00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:07,480
Speaker 1: have not ever been wired for landline telephone used. So, um,

74
00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:10,280
Speaker 1: you know now that uh cell phone talk technology is

75
00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,640
Speaker 1: so inexpensive, I mean just the basic phone technology. Um.

76
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:17,880
Speaker 1: And you know, many people in places such as uh

77
00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:21,960
Speaker 1: you know, Africa for example, Um, more of the rural areas.

78
00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:25,040
Speaker 1: Um you know, really it's a an urban versus rural

79
00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:27,400
Speaker 1: thing anyway. But but um, yeah, a lot of more

80
00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,440
Speaker 1: the rural places where or places that are more removed

81
00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:33,560
Speaker 1: where there's a lot of distance in between that area

82
00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:37,480
Speaker 1: and an urban area. UM uh cell phone usage. You

83
00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:39,200
Speaker 1: know it's easier to put up the towers than it

84
00:04:39,279 --> 00:04:43,760
Speaker 1: is to wire those places for landlines. So UM you

85
00:04:43,760 --> 00:04:47,160
Speaker 1: know that. In doing research for other podcasts where we've

86
00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,960
Speaker 1: talked about phones, UM, I've just run across stories what

87
00:04:50,040 --> 00:04:53,120
Speaker 1: they've said, Well, you know, cell phone usage per capita

88
00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,039
Speaker 1: maybe higher in some of these other places, simply because

89
00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:58,800
Speaker 1: everybody's got a cell phone. They never had a landline phone.

90
00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:01,240
Speaker 1: It's not that they ropped one for the other. It's

91
00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:04,640
Speaker 1: like they completely leap frogged. Yeah, and and and and

92
00:05:04,839 --> 00:05:06,880
Speaker 1: the play and some of these inventions that we're going

93
00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,560
Speaker 1: to talk about UM or these technologies, Uh, they may

94
00:05:10,560 --> 00:05:17,360
Speaker 1: not necessarily have uh for example, electricity seven, but they

95
00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,839
Speaker 1: might be able to repurpose some of these other things,

96
00:05:20,279 --> 00:05:24,120
Speaker 1: uh inexpensively to improve their lives through this other technology.

97
00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:26,160
Speaker 1: And it is a lot of it is very inventive.

98
00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,599
Speaker 1: I actually saw Apollo thirteen invoked in one of the

99
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:34,240
Speaker 1: articles that I was searching for because UM, if you

100
00:05:34,279 --> 00:05:37,960
Speaker 1: know the story that was the mission where um they

101
00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:41,960
Speaker 1: the astronauts had serious, serious problems because they're some of

102
00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,760
Speaker 1: the technology failed, UM and they had to come up

103
00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:47,720
Speaker 1: with other stuff on the fly. I know that was

104
00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:51,560
Speaker 1: actually the uh, the genesis of the idea for the

105
00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,320
Speaker 1: TV show scrap Heap Challenge, which in the United States

106
00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:57,120
Speaker 1: was Junkyard Wars, where you had to just throw some

107
00:05:57,160 --> 00:05:59,400
Speaker 1: other stuff together. And that's sort of this the same

108
00:05:59,440 --> 00:06:02,120
Speaker 1: idea would you would you would go through a junkyard

109
00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:05,440
Speaker 1: and you would salvage different machines in order to build

110
00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:10,960
Speaker 1: something that was specifically intended to achieve a a particular

111
00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,040
Speaker 1: goal which was established at the beginning of the show.

112
00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:15,240
Speaker 1: So you would have a goal like it might be

113
00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:19,040
Speaker 1: traversed this this landscape here, and you're going to have

114
00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:21,920
Speaker 1: to be able to go up, you know, a twenty

115
00:06:21,960 --> 00:06:24,720
Speaker 1: degree incline, and there's going to be a section that's

116
00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:26,400
Speaker 1: gonna be rocky, and there might even be a section

117
00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,120
Speaker 1: where you have to travel across water. So you have

118
00:06:29,120 --> 00:06:31,560
Speaker 1: to build a machine that's capable capable of doing all

119
00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:33,680
Speaker 1: those things. But all you have is whatever is in

120
00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:36,840
Speaker 1: this junkyard. Yeah, and of course they did up it's TV,

121
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:39,599
Speaker 1: so they'd end up seeding the junkyard a handful of

122
00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:42,200
Speaker 1: necessary parts because if nobody ever, you know, they don't

123
00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:44,680
Speaker 1: know everything that's in the junkyard. I'm sure they go, well,

124
00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,119
Speaker 1: it turns out that there isn't any of this stuff

125
00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:49,440
Speaker 1: and we're kind of stuck, so it would make it

126
00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:51,960
Speaker 1: would not make for interesting television, so they would they

127
00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,320
Speaker 1: would put in things in there. But here's the thing

128
00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:57,200
Speaker 1: is that people are really inventive, right, and they can

129
00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,039
Speaker 1: come up with solutions that you do not and to

130
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,120
Speaker 1: to pay. So even if you were to seed a

131
00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:05,280
Speaker 1: junkyard with things that you think, oh, well, clearly, they'll

132
00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:08,040
Speaker 1: want to build a device that can do this by

133
00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:10,680
Speaker 1: using this, this, and this, it may turn out that

134
00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:12,640
Speaker 1: they end up getting stuff that you did not see

135
00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:15,560
Speaker 1: that junkyard with and they build something that works, you know,

136
00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:19,080
Speaker 1: as well or perhaps even better than what you had

137
00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:23,000
Speaker 1: conceived of when you were seating it. Because people adapt

138
00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:25,840
Speaker 1: to the situation they are in, and they are very

139
00:07:25,920 --> 00:07:28,640
Speaker 1: quick to adapt their technology as well. And in fact,

140
00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:32,080
Speaker 1: we have seen that in developing nations and a lot

141
00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:34,280
Speaker 1: of the projects we're gonna be talking about kind of

142
00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,360
Speaker 1: they didn't start this process. They just saw something that

143
00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:41,400
Speaker 1: was happening and decided to help it along. Uh. And

144
00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:43,080
Speaker 1: there are a couple of organizations I want to mention

145
00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:46,960
Speaker 1: before we even get into specifics. One of those is

146
00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:51,000
Speaker 1: called Random Hacks of Kindness and another is called Geeks

147
00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:55,280
Speaker 1: Without Bounds, and both of these organizations are dedicated to

148
00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:59,960
Speaker 1: helping developing nations through various hack projects, although and both

149
00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:03,880
Speaker 1: of those cases, they are more focused on the software

150
00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:06,120
Speaker 1: side of things. So, like you were saying, you know,

151
00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:09,600
Speaker 1: cell phone use being much more prevalent than landline use.

152
00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,760
Speaker 1: A lot of these involve apps for phones that would

153
00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:19,239
Speaker 1: alert people to things that affect them in their daily lives, um,

154
00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,680
Speaker 1: and things that other people just wouldn't think of because

155
00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:24,880
Speaker 1: it's not something that affects us, right, So a lot

156
00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:28,560
Speaker 1: of these are programs that would not that that are

157
00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:31,640
Speaker 1: again on that software side, that are not about hardware hacks.

158
00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:35,400
Speaker 1: We're really focusing mostly on hardware hacks today, although some

159
00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,199
Speaker 1: other stuff might pop up to yeah, this is um.

160
00:08:39,040 --> 00:08:41,760
Speaker 1: Also keep in mind that a lot of the technology

161
00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:43,760
Speaker 1: that that can be used for the you know, it's

162
00:08:43,760 --> 00:08:48,079
Speaker 1: perfectly good technology. Um. You know, we're not talking necessarily

163
00:08:48,120 --> 00:08:50,520
Speaker 1: about junk, although it might be things that other people

164
00:08:50,520 --> 00:08:54,239
Speaker 1: have cast off as being obsolete. In some cases, it's

165
00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:57,880
Speaker 1: you know, completely functional and uh, you know, there's there's

166
00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:01,520
Speaker 1: no reason to overdo it. Yeah, and there's some cases

167
00:09:01,520 --> 00:09:04,640
Speaker 1: where it's not even repurposing in the sense of making

168
00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:08,480
Speaker 1: something do something it wasn't meant to do, like repurposing,

169
00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:10,880
Speaker 1: just as in reusing. So there are a lot of

170
00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,720
Speaker 1: these programs that allow you to do things like donate

171
00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:18,679
Speaker 1: your old electronics to various programs, so like old computers are.

172
00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,280
Speaker 1: That's the perfect example. It might be a computer that

173
00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:23,480
Speaker 1: you think is obsolete because it can't run the latest

174
00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:27,760
Speaker 1: stuff that you like to run, but for a developing nation,

175
00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:31,200
Speaker 1: it might be a very useful asset. But we're really

176
00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:35,960
Speaker 1: looking at in this podcast technology that's been turned into

177
00:09:36,000 --> 00:09:38,200
Speaker 1: doing something else. And I was going to start with

178
00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:43,280
Speaker 1: Maya Pedal, and Maya Pedal I'm I'm assuming that's the

179
00:09:43,480 --> 00:09:46,880
Speaker 1: organization that Adam was talking about in his letter, because

180
00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:53,120
Speaker 1: Maya Pedal is the is a Guatemalan organization that takes

181
00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:57,199
Speaker 1: donated bikes, mainly donated from the United States and from Canada,

182
00:09:57,679 --> 00:10:00,480
Speaker 1: and they take those bikes to either reac condition them

183
00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:03,280
Speaker 1: and sell them or they use the parts to build

184
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:05,760
Speaker 1: what they call and I'm going to completely butcher the

185
00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:11,200
Speaker 1: pronunciation of this biking mackinas or bike powered machines pedal

186
00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:14,280
Speaker 1: powered machines, and so what they're doing is they're actually

187
00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:18,240
Speaker 1: taking these bikes apart to some extent, and using that

188
00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:21,640
Speaker 1: pedal power. So instead of it turning a wheel, it's

189
00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:26,400
Speaker 1: turning some other mechanical part to accomplish a task that

190
00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:32,200
Speaker 1: they might otherwise not have a mechanical opportunity to to

191
00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:34,880
Speaker 1: address it, like things like and the simple stuff. You know,

192
00:10:35,080 --> 00:10:38,520
Speaker 1: Adam and mentioned things like a washing machine. Well that's

193
00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:41,720
Speaker 1: a that's a perfect example. You've got a big tub

194
00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:43,760
Speaker 1: that you put the water in, the soap in, the

195
00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:47,760
Speaker 1: clothing in, and you have an agitator in there, something

196
00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:50,960
Speaker 1: that turns around and moves the clothing so that it

197
00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,559
Speaker 1: creates this agitation which will help the soap and water

198
00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:58,160
Speaker 1: work out all the soil and everything else that's in

199
00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:01,520
Speaker 1: the clothing. You have that agitator hooked up through a

200
00:11:01,559 --> 00:11:06,680
Speaker 1: series of of gears and chains or belts to a

201
00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:09,000
Speaker 1: pedal system on a bike, and it might even have

202
00:11:09,559 --> 00:11:12,000
Speaker 1: the back half of the bike more or less intact,

203
00:11:12,360 --> 00:11:14,600
Speaker 1: where you've got the seat and everything, and you sit

204
00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:16,880
Speaker 1: down the seat, you pedal the pedals, it turns the

205
00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:21,200
Speaker 1: agitator and it ends up washing clothing that way. There's

206
00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:24,600
Speaker 1: actually a guy in Texas who had um a blog.

207
00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,600
Speaker 1: The last entry I saw was in two but there

208
00:11:27,679 --> 00:11:30,320
Speaker 1: was a guy in Texas named John Wells who was

209
00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:33,880
Speaker 1: building He built something very similar to that called the

210
00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:38,000
Speaker 1: He called it the bike O Worsher worshipers spelled w

211
00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:42,079
Speaker 1: O R s h e R in true Texas fashion. Uh.

212
00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:44,960
Speaker 1: He was part of the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy and

213
00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:48,840
Speaker 1: Sustainable Living Field Laboratory. So the idea was that he

214
00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:52,320
Speaker 1: was building stuff that would allow you to have a

215
00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:55,839
Speaker 1: sustainable life where you're not depending so much on things

216
00:11:55,840 --> 00:11:59,400
Speaker 1: like electricity. And it was a really cool project, but

217
00:11:59,559 --> 00:12:01,319
Speaker 1: it's very similar to the stuff you see in these

218
00:12:01,320 --> 00:12:04,880
Speaker 1: developing nations. Now. In the case of Texas, obviously it's

219
00:12:04,920 --> 00:12:08,040
Speaker 1: not due to lack of electricity. It's more of kind

220
00:12:08,080 --> 00:12:12,840
Speaker 1: of a an uh, environmentally friendly lifestyle that he wants

221
00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:16,760
Speaker 1: to adopt, right right. But in the case of Guatemala,

222
00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:20,880
Speaker 1: it may be necessity because not all places in rural

223
00:12:21,960 --> 00:12:27,640
Speaker 1: rural areas of these these countries have access to regular electricity. Yeah, yeah,

224
00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:30,160
Speaker 1: that's true. And one of the things that struck me

225
00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,360
Speaker 1: and doing research for this podcast is the similarity of

226
00:12:34,520 --> 00:12:37,560
Speaker 1: some of these inventions to things that you might see

227
00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:41,360
Speaker 1: in the pages of Make magazine or among the hacker community.

228
00:12:41,800 --> 00:12:44,240
Speaker 1: Um you know, talking about different bike machines. For example,

229
00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:48,400
Speaker 1: I remember watching a video probably more than a year

230
00:12:48,440 --> 00:12:51,960
Speaker 1: ago now where uh, some some folks in San Francisco

231
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,800
Speaker 1: basically collect old bikes and what they do is they

232
00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:57,480
Speaker 1: cut them apart and make new bikes out of them.

233
00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:00,600
Speaker 1: I mean they're they're strange contraptions. Is things with different

234
00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,760
Speaker 1: size wheels and all sorts of others. Mostly too. It's

235
00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:06,440
Speaker 1: like an art bike's community, and it's mostly because they

236
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:09,080
Speaker 1: can and and want to have fun doing that. But

237
00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:11,240
Speaker 1: you can you can do the same kinds of things

238
00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:16,680
Speaker 1: to to uh uh to create sustainable um machinery. Yeah.

239
00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:20,920
Speaker 1: I saw a great video from the Maya Pedal group

240
00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:25,840
Speaker 1: where they showed a de grainer and it was what

241
00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:27,760
Speaker 1: it was was it was this It looked like the

242
00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:31,000
Speaker 1: back half of a bicycle. But then there was this

243
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:36,080
Speaker 1: shoot that you could feed uh corn through corn that's

244
00:13:36,120 --> 00:13:39,160
Speaker 1: actually still on the cob, uncooked corn, and you would

245
00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:41,760
Speaker 1: feed it through and it had a series of gears

246
00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:44,800
Speaker 1: that would end up pulling the kernels off the cob

247
00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:50,080
Speaker 1: so that you could d grain that corn. Very very efficiently.

248
00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:52,440
Speaker 1: You just turned the you know, you're peddling, that's what's

249
00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:56,360
Speaker 1: turning the gears. And uh, it was so much faster

250
00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:58,480
Speaker 1: than doing it by hand, and it actually saves a

251
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,880
Speaker 1: lot of time and for it. So that was another example.

252
00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:03,719
Speaker 1: But they had lots of other ones that I saw.

253
00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:07,719
Speaker 1: One that was a a pedal powered blender, and they

254
00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:11,360
Speaker 1: were showing how they were using aloe plants. They would

255
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:13,320
Speaker 1: take the skin off the alo plant and chop it up,

256
00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:16,320
Speaker 1: put it in with some water and a blender, uh,

257
00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:19,720
Speaker 1: and then uh start peddling. And they would use this

258
00:14:19,840 --> 00:14:22,360
Speaker 1: to create things like shampoos that they could then sell,

259
00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:25,680
Speaker 1: and it was a way of generating money because these

260
00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:30,880
Speaker 1: are in general, the communities that these these projects are

261
00:14:30,920 --> 00:14:38,360
Speaker 1: benefiting are incredibly poor compared to the lives that most

262
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:42,160
Speaker 1: of the people in the west, like the developed nations,

263
00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:45,760
Speaker 1: are used to. So for example, for for me and Chris,

264
00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:50,200
Speaker 1: you know, the thought of uh, the reason why these

265
00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:53,640
Speaker 1: devices are so important is because they they take away

266
00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:57,400
Speaker 1: the reliance upon things like kerosene, which might cost four

267
00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:00,880
Speaker 1: dollars a week, and that is prohibitively spensive. I mean

268
00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:03,320
Speaker 1: that is that's a totally different world than the world

269
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:06,479
Speaker 1: we live in. Yeah. Basically, if you're listening to this podcast,

270
00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:11,200
Speaker 1: you know this. This is kind of a different, different experience. Yeah.

271
00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:13,560
Speaker 1: So yeah, the and and there was a lot of

272
00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:16,560
Speaker 1: other examples of the same sort of thing, mostly, you know,

273
00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:20,120
Speaker 1: all these really cool versions of bikes, uh to do

274
00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:24,040
Speaker 1: things like make tiles. There was a bicycle bicycle powered

275
00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:31,080
Speaker 1: thresher for for harvesting crops. There there were water pumps.

276
00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:34,080
Speaker 1: I saw one where a guy was riding a bike

277
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,720
Speaker 1: and water was coming out of a of a pipe

278
00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,200
Speaker 1: and it was it was like a bicycle powered Well. Yeah,

279
00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:44,240
Speaker 1: I actually ran across an invention from the Nippon Basic

280
00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:48,720
Speaker 1: company in Japan called the Cyclo Clean and basically it's

281
00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:52,680
Speaker 1: it's designed to you add it to the bike. It

282
00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:54,760
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to describe. You might want to

283
00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:58,600
Speaker 1: look it up, but it's it's got water containers so

284
00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:01,760
Speaker 1: somebody would ride there by and it goes on your bike, uh,

285
00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:04,280
Speaker 1: an existing bike, so it's not unmodified. If you will

286
00:16:04,280 --> 00:16:05,840
Speaker 1: you want to cut a bike apart or anything like

287
00:16:05,880 --> 00:16:09,360
Speaker 1: that as a moving bike. And so you ride to

288
00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:12,520
Speaker 1: a place a source of water. Now, if you think

289
00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:17,000
Speaker 1: about lakes or streams, creeks. Uh. You know, most of

290
00:16:17,080 --> 00:16:20,400
Speaker 1: us listening to this podcast probably know all sorts of

291
00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:23,080
Speaker 1: micro organisms live in that water. A lot of it

292
00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:24,880
Speaker 1: isn't safe to drink, and a lot of people around

293
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,800
Speaker 1: the world don't have access to clean water. Um. So

294
00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:30,200
Speaker 1: what this does is you pour the water into the

295
00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:35,480
Speaker 1: containers and as you uh you know, using the kinetic

296
00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:39,280
Speaker 1: energy of pedaling the bike, the Cyclo clean will filter

297
00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:44,480
Speaker 1: the water, so it actually creates potable water by the

298
00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:48,160
Speaker 1: energy of the bike, and it's it's portable and potable.

299
00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:59,520
Speaker 1: So it's that that's a pretty nifty um. Um. Actually,

300
00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:01,040
Speaker 1: I just want to point out before we move on

301
00:17:01,080 --> 00:17:04,000
Speaker 1: real quick, um, A lot of the devices that I found,

302
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:07,680
Speaker 1: uh in researching this episode are not things we can

303
00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:12,480
Speaker 1: talk about because they're they're invented, they're intended to be inexpensive,

304
00:17:12,880 --> 00:17:16,879
Speaker 1: and they're new, so it's not really repurposing technology. There

305
00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:19,520
Speaker 1: are so many really cool devices it might it might

306
00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,639
Speaker 1: also be worth investigating it again in the future. Some

307
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,360
Speaker 1: of the really cool devices that are you know, they'll

308
00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:28,280
Speaker 1: be like a twenty dollar or something and it completely

309
00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:32,520
Speaker 1: does a very useful function and speeds life. And I'm like, oh, man,

310
00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:34,280
Speaker 1: if I could just use like we could talk. You know,

311
00:17:34,359 --> 00:17:37,199
Speaker 1: Dean came In did the whole thing about you know,

312
00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,240
Speaker 1: his his water projects, which I think we talked about

313
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:43,600
Speaker 1: in the Dean came In podcast, but that was years

314
00:17:43,600 --> 00:17:47,440
Speaker 1: ago anyway, So I wanted to also mention, Yeah, Maya

315
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:50,280
Speaker 1: Pedal if you if you live in the United States

316
00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:53,280
Speaker 1: or Canada and you're interested in donating an old bicycle

317
00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:55,920
Speaker 1: to this, Maya Pedal does have its own website and

318
00:17:55,920 --> 00:17:58,119
Speaker 1: you can learn more about the program and how you

319
00:17:58,160 --> 00:18:01,520
Speaker 1: can participate. They also invite people to come down and

320
00:18:01,640 --> 00:18:06,000
Speaker 1: visit their facilities in Guatemala. Obviously, you can even work

321
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:09,000
Speaker 1: there for a while, volunteer there for a while and

322
00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:14,880
Speaker 1: help do things like make repairs or design new machines. Um.

323
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:17,240
Speaker 1: It's very much a hacker culture in the sense of

324
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:20,840
Speaker 1: they have they have specific tasks they need to achieve.

325
00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:25,199
Speaker 1: They have a specific set of resources they they they

326
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:28,000
Speaker 1: are at their disposal, and they have to find the

327
00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:31,480
Speaker 1: way to make the resources meet their their needs. So

328
00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:34,479
Speaker 1: they're not interested in making it look pretty. They're not

329
00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:38,640
Speaker 1: interested in any of that. Their aesthetics are not important. Yeah,

330
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,280
Speaker 1: it's all about achieving the goal and and that's something

331
00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:45,399
Speaker 1: that appeals to a lot of hackers who are all about, hey, yeah,

332
00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:47,880
Speaker 1: I know that this was meant to do this one thing,

333
00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:50,320
Speaker 1: but you know, if we just changed it a little bit,

334
00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:52,639
Speaker 1: we could totally do this other thing. Let's see if

335
00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:56,199
Speaker 1: we can make it happen. And uh, you read a

336
00:18:56,240 --> 00:19:00,360
Speaker 1: lot about that kind of stuff in these in these stories. Um,

337
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:03,360
Speaker 1: there was another one that I wanted to mention, very

338
00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:07,280
Speaker 1: similar kind of idea again using bicycles. A fellow named

339
00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:13,320
Speaker 1: how Watts invented something designed to help countries that are

340
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:17,919
Speaker 1: all about dealing with e waste. So, you know, old electronics,

341
00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:20,920
Speaker 1: if you're right, yeah, if you've ever if you've ever

342
00:19:20,960 --> 00:19:23,680
Speaker 1: tried to get rid of your electronics, maybe maybe you've

343
00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:25,960
Speaker 1: tried to put them in some sort of e waste

344
00:19:26,280 --> 00:19:30,239
Speaker 1: recycle program. One of the problems of of some of

345
00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,080
Speaker 1: those programs, not all of them, they're not all created equal,

346
00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:38,040
Speaker 1: but some of those programs, some of these programs ship

347
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:42,359
Speaker 1: that stuff off to various developing nations where they have

348
00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:47,160
Speaker 1: an industry all around recycling that material, and it's mostly

349
00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:53,440
Speaker 1: about recapturing the metals that are used in those products,

350
00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:58,439
Speaker 1: mainly copper. Yeah, and lead to recapturing the copper and

351
00:19:58,520 --> 00:20:01,199
Speaker 1: lead that's used in these electronic It can be a

352
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:05,680
Speaker 1: very dangerous thing to do if you aren't being if

353
00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:09,440
Speaker 1: you're if you're not following particular steps right and and

354
00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:11,560
Speaker 1: it can release a lot of toxic elements into the

355
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:15,199
Speaker 1: environment and also affect people's health. Yeah, the thing is

356
00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:17,760
Speaker 1: too that in in some of these cases, the people

357
00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:20,719
Speaker 1: who are disassembling the electronics aren't given the proper tools

358
00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:23,440
Speaker 1: to do that, and some I've read about people who

359
00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:28,679
Speaker 1: had to put materials into a fire essentially intending to

360
00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:31,320
Speaker 1: melt it all down, and of course in doing so,

361
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:35,399
Speaker 1: it releases toxic chemical toxic chemicals, uh into this the

362
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:39,159
Speaker 1: soil um people have had in in the atmosphere. The

363
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,720
Speaker 1: people in the immediate area have health problems as a

364
00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:45,879
Speaker 1: result of the the metals leaching into their soil and

365
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,160
Speaker 1: having to breathe the smoke. It can affect areas even

366
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:51,800
Speaker 1: further out from the immediate area. It's it's one of

367
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:56,440
Speaker 1: those in a way, it really shows that environmental concerns

368
00:20:56,440 --> 00:21:00,080
Speaker 1: and ecology go beyond just the point. Like there's a

369
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,840
Speaker 1: there's like a ring effect, right you you move one

370
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:06,240
Speaker 1: ring further out from the center, and you can still

371
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:08,439
Speaker 1: see where the effects are. And they might not be

372
00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,800
Speaker 1: a severe and they may not be the same effects

373
00:21:11,840 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 1: as you would see right at the point of contact,

374
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:17,280
Speaker 1: but it's still negative. Well in this case, very it's

375
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:19,080
Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about. You know a lot of

376
00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:22,040
Speaker 1: these UH countries. What they do is that they will

377
00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:25,800
Speaker 1: use fire to melt stuff down, like like let's say

378
00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,680
Speaker 1: copper wire that's insulated. So you've got a rubber insulation

379
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,360
Speaker 1: around copper wire. Well, they want to get to the copper.

380
00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:34,960
Speaker 1: They want to get the rubber off of there. And

381
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:37,120
Speaker 1: what's an efficient way of doing that. Well, you could

382
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:39,199
Speaker 1: burn the rubber off, but that can release a lot

383
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:41,480
Speaker 1: of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere and get it into

384
00:21:41,480 --> 00:21:44,879
Speaker 1: the ground as well. Uh. And then you also have

385
00:21:45,359 --> 00:21:48,760
Speaker 1: essentially a burnt copper, which is not as valuable as

386
00:21:48,800 --> 00:21:51,959
Speaker 1: copper that has not been put through this process. So

387
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:56,359
Speaker 1: what Watts did was he built a machine that was

388
00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:00,359
Speaker 1: again a bicycle powered machine where he called the E

389
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:04,840
Speaker 1: source and it has a grinder in it and it

390
00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:09,320
Speaker 1: has also a metal separator. Uh. It's it's it's like

391
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:12,080
Speaker 1: a centrifuge in a way. And what you do is

392
00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:15,119
Speaker 1: you put the copper wire into the grinder and you

393
00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:19,719
Speaker 1: petal the petals. Some grinders actually grind that up so

394
00:22:19,760 --> 00:22:22,840
Speaker 1: that the rubber and the and the copper come apart.

395
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:27,560
Speaker 1: It shreds the copper wire, so you get smaller segments

396
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:30,440
Speaker 1: of copper wire, and the rubbers is pulled right off

397
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:34,800
Speaker 1: of the copper. The spinning plate actually spends so that

398
00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:37,959
Speaker 1: it separates out the copper from the rubbers. So then

399
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: you've got these rubber pellets on one side and you've

400
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,520
Speaker 1: got the copper on the other side, and it means

401
00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:48,119
Speaker 1: that you no longer have the danger of burning this

402
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 1: stuff and releasing the toxic chemicals, and you can actually

403
00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 1: recycle the rubber as well, so it it also adds

404
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:58,280
Speaker 1: a second level of revenue to this process, which before

405
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 1: was all about the metal, because you know, you couldn't

406
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:03,320
Speaker 1: use the rubber after you've burnt it off. But now

407
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:06,040
Speaker 1: you've got this these rubber re pellets that you can

408
00:23:06,040 --> 00:23:09,840
Speaker 1: actually use in other forms of recycling. So it adds

409
00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 1: benefit to the process and it takes away some of

410
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:20,040
Speaker 1: the more dangerous parts of recycling electronics. So that was

411
00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,679
Speaker 1: his invention. There's actually video on the web. He's got

412
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:25,919
Speaker 1: a website all about the source. So if you and

413
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:29,359
Speaker 1: it's E S O U R C E. If you

414
00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:31,679
Speaker 1: do a search for that, you can actually find his

415
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 1: website and learn more about it and the project that

416
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:38,360
Speaker 1: he's been working on. It's really really interesting. So that's

417
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:41,920
Speaker 1: another example of again using bicycles. There are a lot

418
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:44,159
Speaker 1: of those, because bicycles are one of those that's a

419
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:48,120
Speaker 1: piece of technology that's common around the world. And uh,

420
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:51,120
Speaker 1: and and it's one of those that um it's it's

421
00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:54,080
Speaker 1: so much more accessible than other kinds of technology, and

422
00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:58,560
Speaker 1: so it's not dependent upon electricity or fuel it's got Uh,

423
00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,560
Speaker 1: it's it's really a tractive for these communities that might

424
00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:05,600
Speaker 1: not otherwise be able to afford the sort of technology

425
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:09,120
Speaker 1: that can do whatever it is these machines do. Yeah,

426
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 1: in a in a similar vein you actually wrote about

427
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,359
Speaker 1: one of the technologies I wanted to talk about. Um

428
00:24:16,440 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, one of the serious problems that

429
00:24:19,680 --> 00:24:22,240
Speaker 1: they have in some developing nations or a lot of

430
00:24:22,280 --> 00:24:25,320
Speaker 1: developing nations, I should say, is uh uh you know

431
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:31,000
Speaker 1: babies who are are born prematurely um and uh you know, uh,

432
00:24:31,359 --> 00:24:35,280
Speaker 1: they need incubation to to keep them warm. And uh,

433
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,200
Speaker 1: I think it's really clever there's Jonathan wrote an article

434
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 1: for the website how Stuff Works dot com on on

435
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:47,520
Speaker 1: using engines to serve as incubators. Um it's really really

436
00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 1: cool stuff. Basically, uh you know they uh it uses

437
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:56,640
Speaker 1: a an engine to to generate the heat, but um,

438
00:24:56,680 --> 00:25:00,040
Speaker 1: it also has a battery powered back up. And it

439
00:25:00,119 --> 00:25:03,640
Speaker 1: was actually developed by the Center for Integration of Medicine

440
00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 1: and Innovative Technology or SIMMIT, and a a company called

441
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:13,719
Speaker 1: Design That Matters UM, which uh, you know is into

442
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 1: all kinds of different design really. Um. They had a

443
00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 1: basically they had a contest to see who could who

444
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 1: could come up with the best uh contraption for this,

445
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 1: and it uh you know uses um, basically different parts

446
00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: of the automotive assembly for you know, um uh there's

447
00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:36,359
Speaker 1: a handrail built into it, for example, and there um

448
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 1: you know, they're parts that that come that are not

449
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,479
Speaker 1: part of the the automotive kit, but the rest of it,

450
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:48,040
Speaker 1: you know, they use the headlights to generate heat and

451
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:52,159
Speaker 1: hv A C for um, you know, to stir the

452
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: heat around. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's that was definitely an

453
00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 1: interesting project to read about because again it was uh,

454
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 1: it was this idea that it's not just the problem

455
00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:09,439
Speaker 1: of um of getting the tech to them, it's getting

456
00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:12,840
Speaker 1: tech that is easy to maintain, and it's a lot

457
00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:16,720
Speaker 1: easier to maintain the basic parts of an automobile. Again,

458
00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:20,399
Speaker 1: a technology that has fairly wide distribution than it is

459
00:26:20,440 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: for something that's incredibly specialized. So if a hospital sent

460
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 1: h a a high tech incubator to a developing nation

461
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:33,600
Speaker 1: and that incubator were to break down, as you know

462
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: technology tends to do over time, it's a lot harder

463
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,679
Speaker 1: for that. It may be impossible for that that organization

464
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,600
Speaker 1: to make repairs. It may take months to get a

465
00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,280
Speaker 1: broken machine fixed when it's got that level of sophistication

466
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 1: and the tools that the people have don't meet that

467
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:56,280
Speaker 1: level of sophistication. So being able to create technology that

468
00:26:56,359 --> 00:27:00,239
Speaker 1: can accomplish the same goal, but but as built from

469
00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:03,920
Speaker 1: much more basic types of tech that have a lot

470
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:07,640
Speaker 1: more distribution around the world means that you have made

471
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,720
Speaker 1: it far more accessible. Because again, in fact I read this,

472
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:13,600
Speaker 1: and this was from MAKE magazine, there was a great

473
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:17,920
Speaker 1: article by Paul spin Rad called design for Heck in Medicine,

474
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 1: and in that there was a little fact that said

475
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: about nine of medical technology that reaches poor countries is

476
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:28,640
Speaker 1: hand me down equipment designed for first world facilities. That's

477
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,600
Speaker 1: the problem because these are not first world facilities that

478
00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:36,680
Speaker 1: these these devices are going to, So there's limited use there. Um,

479
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:38,880
Speaker 1: you don't you don't go in and plug something into

480
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:41,400
Speaker 1: the wall in some of these cases, you don't have

481
00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:43,800
Speaker 1: a wall to plug into in some of these cames.

482
00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,400
Speaker 1: So you have to come up with a new way

483
00:27:46,440 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: of powering that. And I think I misspoke a few

484
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: minutes ago when I was talking about using the car engines.

485
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 1: They don't, you know, put the kid on the engine.

486
00:27:54,119 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: That would not be very good. Um. Now they used

487
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:02,199
Speaker 1: the engines for parts, and that's because the you know,

488
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,440
Speaker 1: people have the tech around and generally people know how

489
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:08,000
Speaker 1: to repair the car, so they know what the different

490
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,359
Speaker 1: pieces do, and uh, you know, the parts would be available.

491
00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:14,719
Speaker 1: And then uh, I want to talk a little bit

492
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 1: about a fellow named Jose Gomez Marquez. Now he's really

493
00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 1: looked into this medical issue about creating medical equipment for

494
00:28:25,240 --> 00:28:31,199
Speaker 1: countries that do not have first world medical facilities. And uh,

495
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:35,639
Speaker 1: there's a whole list of different kinds of technology that

496
00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,320
Speaker 1: he and his team have come up with, uh to

497
00:28:38,520 --> 00:28:42,640
Speaker 1: help out these countries. One of those was a device

498
00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: that actually uses sunlight to sterilize surgical tools, which again

499
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: that's that's phenomenal, and according to the articles is it

500
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,479
Speaker 1: uses a bucket, a pressure cooker, and one forty pocket

501
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:00,240
Speaker 1: sized mirrors, which all of which were purchased out of

502
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:04,400
Speaker 1: a Nicaraguan market, and then they built out this device

503
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: that uses sun sunlight to end up heating these surgical tools,

504
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:13,680
Speaker 1: so they are sterilized because they don't have electricity, or

505
00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,640
Speaker 1: at least not enough electricity to power a regular autoclave

506
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:19,760
Speaker 1: for sterilizing tools, and that if they were to go

507
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:22,560
Speaker 1: with one that ran on fuel, it would cost them

508
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 1: so much money. And again we're talking about small amounts

509
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:27,400
Speaker 1: of money for most of us, but for these communities

510
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,240
Speaker 1: it's it's prohibitively expensive to run those sort of devices,

511
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: which means that you are risking some major medical catastrophes

512
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:38,000
Speaker 1: if you do not have properly sterilized surgical tools. You know,

513
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: you're talking about possibility for terrible infections that could really

514
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 1: make patient mortality rates skyrocket. So this was a way

515
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:51,920
Speaker 1: of creating a device that doesn't depend on electricity, It

516
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 1: just uses sunlight, which you know too, it's much easier

517
00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:59,680
Speaker 1: to to to get hold of than it would for

518
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:03,120
Speaker 1: some like electricity. So that was a good example. But

519
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: then the article actually goes into other things that were

520
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: developed specifically for this UH, for this community and communities

521
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: like it through m I T, which was this idea

522
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 1: of medi kits. Have you read about these um I did? Yeah.

523
00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:25,520
Speaker 1: UM Gomez Marquez is the program director for m I

524
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:29,400
Speaker 1: T s Innovations and International Health Program. And then the

525
00:30:29,960 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 1: idea behind these kits and this program is that UM,

526
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:39,440
Speaker 1: these these parts and pieces are available two UH physicians

527
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: and who are working in these areas, they might be

528
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: able to find that, and so the point was to

529
00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 1: teach them how to use everyday stuff to make equipment

530
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,600
Speaker 1: that they would have. You know, they would be familiar

531
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: with his physicians in the first world, they would already

532
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 1: be familiar with that the pre may manufactured version of this.

533
00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,560
Speaker 1: Now that he's his group wants to teach people how

534
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 1: to take UH these parts and do it themselves on

535
00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: on the fly from what's on hand. And in fact,

536
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: they have these medicits that come in in five different variations.

537
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 1: So there's drug delivery, lateral flow diagnostics, lab on a chip,

538
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 1: vital signs and agricultural prosthetics, which the agricultural prosthetics one

539
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: is pretty pretty wild to me, but we'll we'll, I'll

540
00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 1: talk about that in a second. Anyway, it's talking about

541
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:36,760
Speaker 1: taking a lot of like Chris was saying, a lot

542
00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: of basic elements that you can find in other forms

543
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:44,640
Speaker 1: of machinery and electronics, So talking about things like um

544
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: plungers or bicycle pumps or compressors, tilt sensors, that sort

545
00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:55,560
Speaker 1: of stuff, these basic elements, and then teaching people different

546
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,360
Speaker 1: ways of putting those things together to accomplish whatever your

547
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 1: goals are. And in act, they talked a lot about

548
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 1: how they learned about using toys parts from toys as

549
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: medical equipment, so things like a remote controlled helicopter and

550
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: and removing some of the machinery from that in order

551
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,760
Speaker 1: to create a medical device. I talked about even there

552
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:22,240
Speaker 1: was a a an electric mechanical ferris wheel toy that

553
00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 1: could be double as a centrifuge, just with some modifications.

554
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,080
Speaker 1: So they talked about how you know, medical equipment, the

555
00:32:30,400 --> 00:32:32,760
Speaker 1: comparable medical equipment if this country were to try and

556
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:36,120
Speaker 1: buy it would be really expensive, Like we're talking about

557
00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: really sophisticated medical equipment, but that you could accomplish the

558
00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:44,160
Speaker 1: same outcome with these low tech approaches just by repurposing

559
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: the technology, and suddenly the cost drops dramatically. So suddenly

560
00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:51,440
Speaker 1: these these things that were out of reach for these

561
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:55,000
Speaker 1: medical facilities become attainable. It just means that you have

562
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: to learn how to adapt this technology so they can

563
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 1: do what you needed to do. And the article was

564
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 1: so fascinating to me because it talks so much about

565
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:09,479
Speaker 1: how they found They discovered that there were people in

566
00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:13,120
Speaker 1: the field already doing this right it had there are

567
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 1: people who were taking equipment and saying, all right, well,

568
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:18,920
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take this one piece of equipment I

569
00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 1: have and I'm going to alter it in this way

570
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 1: so it can do what I did needed to do

571
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:26,600
Speaker 1: better than it can right now, because the the use

572
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:31,080
Speaker 1: cases might be very specific and the equipment might be

573
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 1: very generalized, and so you might have a generalized piece

574
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:36,360
Speaker 1: of equipment that can do a lot of stuff, but

575
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:40,280
Speaker 1: it can't do it as well as a modified piece

576
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:42,440
Speaker 1: of equipment could. And they were starting to see how

577
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 1: people were modifying things and improvising out in the field

578
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 1: in order to make repairs or to make modifications to

579
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:54,719
Speaker 1: get better results. Uh. It's really really interesting and uh

580
00:33:55,360 --> 00:34:00,280
Speaker 1: also really speaks a lot to human ingenuity. Well, I

581
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: think I think for somebody who would be trained, um

582
00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:07,920
Speaker 1: in a modern hospital to to do medical care, you

583
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: would be thinking of the technology that that we have

584
00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 1: available to us. And I think that the trick is

585
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:19,720
Speaker 1: to get people to see the similarities between everyday stuff

586
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: and the high tech equivalent. Um, you know the photo

587
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,680
Speaker 1: I I saw in the article I read about about

588
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 1: this program. Uh, they show him using a a drinking

589
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 1: straw for a pipette. Now you know, I would think,

590
00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 1: uh myself, and I'm not a medical professional by any

591
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 1: stretch of the imagination, but you know, having elementary chemistry

592
00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 1: classes in high school thinking, you know, well that that's

593
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 1: kind of you know, that's that's not as scientific and

594
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 1: it's not as sanitary. But uh, you know, if if

595
00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:53,880
Speaker 1: if you do things carefully and you know what you're doing,

596
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 1: you can still do a lot with that technology available.

597
00:34:57,239 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 1: And that's I think that's the point is to draw

598
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 1: that parallels. You see, Yes, I mean you are achieving

599
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:05,560
Speaker 1: the same goal with this everyday technology that you would

600
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:10,680
Speaker 1: be with this highly precise manufactured stuff. And you can

601
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:13,879
Speaker 1: do it with what you have, and it will will

602
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: help people. Um. It is worth pointing out that a

603
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:20,600
Speaker 1: lot of there are are initiatives and non governmental organizations

604
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:26,080
Speaker 1: that are repurposing uh less modern technology, you know, stuff

605
00:35:26,120 --> 00:35:28,839
Speaker 1: that's five years out of date, ten years out of date,

606
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 1: stuff that's still perfectly viable, and and sending it to

607
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 1: to other countries that don't have access to those technologies,

608
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,560
Speaker 1: which is which is you know great, rather than scrapping it. Um,

609
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:41,759
Speaker 1: you know, somebody else is able to put it to use,

610
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:45,239
Speaker 1: but not everyone can use that. So these these initiatives

611
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 1: are certainly very valuable. Yeah, And getting back to the

612
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 1: medicate stuff, what the the team discovered was that when

613
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 1: they started to distribute these medicates, uh, let me read

614
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:57,160
Speaker 1: a quote from the articles. As we designed the limits

615
00:35:57,200 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 1: of our early kids carefully, but when users began to

616
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 1: snare up on extend and test their creations, something emerged

617
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:06,879
Speaker 1: that we did not anticipate. They hacked our kits, which

618
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:09,000
Speaker 1: is what we were talking about, Like they made the

619
00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 1: kids modular, like these ideas of these modular kits so

620
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,560
Speaker 1: that you could create different It's almost like the medical

621
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 1: version of our Duenos stuff. It was a very modular

622
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: approach to creating medical equipment, but they were going beyond

623
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:27,440
Speaker 1: the modular approach and adding in elements that were not

624
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,680
Speaker 1: part of the kit, or physically altering parts of the

625
00:36:30,760 --> 00:36:32,879
Speaker 1: kit in order to do what they needed it to do.

626
00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,200
Speaker 1: And they started to see that, okay, well, with this

627
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 1: sort of mentality, which makes perfect sense, you know that

628
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,400
Speaker 1: they are trying to to meet the needs of whatever

629
00:36:43,440 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: their community happens to be. They said, all right, we

630
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:51,200
Speaker 1: have to think to design these kits with hacking in mind,

631
00:36:51,840 --> 00:36:54,120
Speaker 1: knowing that this stuff is going to get hacked when

632
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:55,960
Speaker 1: we send it out. We have to design the kids.

633
00:36:56,320 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: And they said, while it's impossible to predict every type

634
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,600
Speaker 1: of device a kit can deuce, you can start with

635
00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: a core set of devices, start to add degrees of

636
00:37:05,080 --> 00:37:07,799
Speaker 1: freedom to that core, and then try to anticipate in

637
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,600
Speaker 1: design areas in which those degrees will be hacked. And

638
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 1: the reason why they want to make sure that they

639
00:37:13,120 --> 00:37:16,080
Speaker 1: take this into account is one so that the devices

640
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:20,520
Speaker 1: are as accessible and useful as possible, but too and

641
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 1: possibly more importantly, they want to put safety measures in

642
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 1: place so that if you were to hack this medikit,

643
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:31,600
Speaker 1: you would not end up creating a device that could

644
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: cause more harm than good. So that was their other

645
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:36,719
Speaker 1: concern was that, all right, well, we want to make

646
00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:39,279
Speaker 1: sure that whatever we design, it's not going to end

647
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:43,160
Speaker 1: up killing people when a hack goes wrong, because not

648
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:48,040
Speaker 1: every time hackers know this, Not every attempt is a success.

649
00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:51,000
Speaker 1: Sometimes you take stuff apart and it just don't work

650
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,160
Speaker 1: no more. Uh, some of us. That's the only kind

651
00:37:54,160 --> 00:37:57,520
Speaker 1: of hacker we are. I'm guilty of that. I can

652
00:37:57,560 --> 00:38:00,960
Speaker 1: take things apart really well, putting it back together and

653
00:38:01,080 --> 00:38:05,640
Speaker 1: making it work. Okay, it's a baby step process, people.

654
00:38:05,920 --> 00:38:09,400
Speaker 1: So anyway, where did these extra pieces come from? I

655
00:38:09,480 --> 00:38:13,239
Speaker 1: don't even know what this fits in. UM. I wanted

656
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:15,920
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about the Agricultural Prosthetic medicit,

657
00:38:17,160 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: a flavor of medicits they had, because that was one

658
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:23,359
Speaker 1: that I thought was kind of interesting. So the kit

659
00:38:23,560 --> 00:38:27,000
Speaker 1: essentially has a universal gripper. So this is a device

660
00:38:27,040 --> 00:38:30,839
Speaker 1: for people who have lost a limb and need need

661
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:33,799
Speaker 1: something in order to be able to uh to to

662
00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:37,719
Speaker 1: harvest crops. So it might be something so that you

663
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 1: could pick fruit from a tree. But let's say you've

664
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: lost a limb through some terrible injury or illness, and

665
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:49,279
Speaker 1: in some cases that would lead people not to to

666
00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:51,960
Speaker 1: want to hire you anymore because there because you're no

667
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 1: longer as effective. So this is a This kit came

668
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: with a universal gripper made from PVC bicycle inner two

669
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:04,319
Speaker 1: and a soda bottle to attach most farm tools onto

670
00:39:04,400 --> 00:39:08,160
Speaker 1: the arm or forearm of an amputee farmer. So the

671
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 1: soda bottle was the part that fit over the whatever

672
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:15,000
Speaker 1: part of the arm remains right, so that would fit

673
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:17,480
Speaker 1: on that, and then the rest would extend from the

674
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,680
Speaker 1: soda bottle out ending in the universe in the universal

675
00:39:20,680 --> 00:39:23,960
Speaker 1: grippers that it could pull or grip onto whatever it

676
00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 1: is you needed. And uh and said, each part of

677
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:30,000
Speaker 1: the kit follows the same three principles core device, modifier,

678
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:33,680
Speaker 1: device and consumables um And then it talked about how

679
00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:37,360
Speaker 1: and in various articles talked about how people who received

680
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: these kits even then would modify them further by adding

681
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 1: in other elements like other stuff to extend the arm

682
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:45,960
Speaker 1: even further than it was already meant to go, so

683
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,680
Speaker 1: that it could help people reach crops that otherwise would

684
00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:53,920
Speaker 1: be out of their range. So again people took the

685
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: stuff that were that was distributed and made even more

686
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,640
Speaker 1: modifications so that it was more useful for their own

687
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:05,840
Speaker 1: daily lives. Uh, fascinating stuff. And again I mean the

688
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 1: the ingenuity here, like people noticing that a noisemaker in

689
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:14,279
Speaker 1: a toy could be used as an alarm system for

690
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: a medical device, so that when something is getting to

691
00:40:17,880 --> 00:40:21,200
Speaker 1: a critical parameter, it goes noises made so that it

692
00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 1: alerts people, and things like that, like where they don't

693
00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:27,400
Speaker 1: have that specialized equipment, they're building it themselves. It's really

694
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 1: interesting to me. Yeah, well, that's that's what tech stuff

695
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:32,760
Speaker 1: is about. Um. You know, if you're long term listener,

696
00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 1: you know that Jonathan and I like to talk about

697
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:39,400
Speaker 1: technology and people, how it how it affects people. And um,

698
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 1: I think this is this is really awesome because a

699
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:45,680
Speaker 1: lot of these devices that people are taking apart are

700
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 1: are either obsolete or are broken, and they're repurposing them

701
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:50,800
Speaker 1: and helping other people with that, and I just I

702
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:54,640
Speaker 1: just think that's absolutely fantastic. Yeah, it's it's not just ingenuity,

703
00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:57,880
Speaker 1: but compassion and those two those two elements coming together,

704
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,319
Speaker 1: that's that's like the best of humanity, right if you're

705
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:04,839
Speaker 1: talking about caring for other people and using your your

706
00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 1: creative endeavors to come up with new solutions. That's a

707
00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:11,319
Speaker 1: great story. And uh, and so guys, if you have

708
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,360
Speaker 1: interest in this, I highly recommend you look into some

709
00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:17,200
Speaker 1: of these projects further and see maybe there's something you

710
00:41:17,200 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 1: can help out with. Maybe there's something you can either

711
00:41:19,680 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 1: donate money to, or even better, if you are able

712
00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 1: to donate your time or expertise to some of these projects,

713
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: you could make an enormous difference in the lives of

714
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,320
Speaker 1: other people and and bring a help bring a better

715
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:36,520
Speaker 1: living experience to people who really are having a totally

716
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 1: different kind of life than the one most of us

717
00:41:38,880 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 1: are used to. Yeah, I mean, even if it's it's

718
00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:43,200
Speaker 1: just a small thing to you, it may make a

719
00:41:43,239 --> 00:41:46,600
Speaker 1: real difference in someone else's life. That's true. So I'm

720
00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:48,560
Speaker 1: glad that we have this discussion. I think that I

721
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: think that's a good overview of the subject. Now, there

722
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:54,920
Speaker 1: are a lot more examples that are out there. We

723
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,040
Speaker 1: really just covered some some pretty broad topics. But I

724
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 1: do recommend you look into it if this is something

725
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:03,160
Speaker 1: interest you and uh, and maybe you'll find your passion.

726
00:42:03,160 --> 00:42:07,320
Speaker 1: Like Adam did, who you know, he he really uprooted

727
00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:09,680
Speaker 1: his entire life in order to pursue this and that's

728
00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:13,840
Speaker 1: that's amazing happiness plunge. Indeed, in fact, the happiness Plunge

729
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:15,799
Speaker 1: dot com. Folks, if you want to take a look

730
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:21,200
Speaker 1: at his website because it's it's a crazy wonderful sort

731
00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:24,200
Speaker 1: of thing to do. Um. I'm not sure that I

732
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:26,160
Speaker 1: am the kind of person who could who could make

733
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: that commitment. I am amazed at people who do, and

734
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:32,440
Speaker 1: thankful for them as well. Well. That wraps up this discussion.

735
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,759
Speaker 1: If you guys have subjects, if you would like to

736
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:39,000
Speaker 1: suggest we cover, you can contact us by email. Our

737
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:42,839
Speaker 1: address is tech stuff at Discovery dot com. Or you

738
00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:45,600
Speaker 1: can let us know on Facebook or Twitter or handle

739
00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:48,759
Speaker 1: there is tech stuff hsw or hey, you can send

740
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:54,719
Speaker 1: us a real life letter. What Yeah, fancy technology. I

741
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,279
Speaker 1: used Google and that's what it says. This thing is

742
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,759
Speaker 1: um so anyway. Uh. The address for the offices on

743
00:43:01,800 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 1: our website how stuff works dot com. So uh, and hey,

744
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 1: we love getting mail and the stuffy miss in history

745
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:10,839
Speaker 1: class ladies get a lot more of it than we do,

746
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,200
Speaker 1: so let's make them jealous for a while, shall we. Uh.

747
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,840
Speaker 1: And we'll talk to you guys again really soon for

748
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,320
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it

749
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com? Brought to you by the

750
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:30,879
Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you