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LowTechnology
Low technology (low tech; adjective forms: low-technology, low-tech, lotech) is simple technology, opposed to high technology. They often refer to a traditional or non-mechanical kind, such as crafts and tools that predate the Industrial Revolution.
Low technology can simply be practiced or fabricated with a minimum of capital investment by an individual or small group of individuals. Also, the knowledge of the practice can be completely comprehended by a single individual, free from increasing specialization and compartmentalization. In some definition, low-tech techniques and designs may fall into disuse due to changing socio-economic conditions or priorities. Overall, these technologies are easily fabricable, adaptable and reparable, and use little energy and resources (that all come from local sources) to stay on the whole eco-friendly.
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Low-techs are present in everyday life. For example, biking to work or repairing your own devices instead of throwing them away corresponds to the low-tech philosophy.
Groups associated with low-technology
- Arts and Crafts Movement
- Bauhaus movement of Germany around the same time.
- Do-It-Yourself phenomenon arising in America following World War II.
- Back-to-the-land movement beginning in America during the 1960s.
- Luddites, the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
- Living history & open-air museums to recreate bygone societies.
- Simple living adherents, as the Amish and some sects of the Mennonites, who refused newer tech to avoid undesirable effects on their societies.
- Survivalists are often proponents, since low-technology is inherently more robust than its high-technology counterpart.
