Chapter 4- Challenge 3: Innovation Too Slow
Summary
Woodhouse talks about our motivation as a society to implement new technologies in Chapter 4. There are many perspectives he highlights. First is the general population, who find it "easier to perceive bad things happening than good things not happening” (45)—we see this obviously with online customer reviews. More posts are written about a product for cons or problems than satisfactory or positive experiences. If people are satisfied, they're less likely to go on and write a review. Next he goes into the view of the head of biomed corporations who control whether a vaccine is researched, publicized, and where it is sent. Their motivations are highly political and personal, often with profit motives or incentives put in place by the business model. He ends with a view of car purchasers and home ownership contradictions, and how our motivations as homebuyers are often nonsensical or have to do with an infrastructure that discourages us from inputing new technology.
Analysis & Synthesis
Dengue fever is extremely deadly and at risk to some 2.5 billion people, according to Woodhouse. It is officially considered a neglected illness by World Health Organization, which couldn't be more obvious. I've heard about it all of 2 or 3 times in my life. It feels unfair, how little society motivates us to learn about these issues in the world and how little information is made available. The unfairness continues when people in charge of vaccines for these types of diseases make decisions “based partly on whether there is likely to be a paying clientele”(46) and they find “it more profitable to emphasize drugs for curing disease rather than drugs for prevention” (46). I find this infuriating, frankly. Drugs for curing diseases get so much hype but prevention is worth a million cures! I think we need to start implementing systems and rethinking the current medical system to drive doctors and research groups towards prevention, awareness, and more open sources of information about personal health and disease. Profit incentives are understandable and feed on a very human attribute, but we need to use them to our advantage to progress and create good in the world.
The exact same thing needs to be done for Green Housing. The product Woodhouse spoke most about in this chapter was Geothermal Heat Pumps, which take hot or cool air and pull them up from the ground and use it to heat buildings. These are ideal for schools as parks and parking lots provide plenty of underground space to bury the pumps and tubes. GHPs are extremely efficient and while requiring a larger installation cost, have a largely lower utility cost compared to electric heating and AC, and are much friendlier to the environment than natural gas when installed correctly. However, there is a huge lack of experienced contractors available due to lack of educational opportunities. The part that really irritates me is that banks do not taking utility costs into account and thus do not home owners to borrow the extra $10,000-$25,000 to install the GHP system. Homeowners are virtually shut out unless they have excellent academic standing and the motivation for a greener home. They would have to develop this motivation on their own and do their research to even know about GHPs.
Essentially, the point of this chapter is“just because people have needs, and just because technoscientists have the techniques to help meet those needs, does not mean that economic, political, cultural, and other barriers will not interfere” (54). This is exactly, why people still buy Victorian homes despite their lack of energy or spacial efficiency. Our motivations come from outside the market: because we have always wanted one, or it’s “in” to own one in the neighborhood we're buying in, or because we grew up in one. That is why we will buy crappy homes in the new market. The market and our society simply isn't adapting to motivate people to make this shift, and even those who want to are shot down for their efforts. This is no way to create a sustainable, progressive economy for innovations.
