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Open Source Low Tech

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Re: Open Source Low Tech

#131

Post by nephihaha »

nchmy wrote: post #14
benj111 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be nice is setting up as much manufacturing as possible in Africa for making bikes designed for Africa. Bike maintenance isn't a skill issue. It's an issue of specialised tools and hard to get spares. Talk to your own Grand parents. If they weren't rich they'd have had to fix their own bike, and they wouldn't have had Google helping them.

What would be different about a bike designed for Africa than one designed for anywhere else? What parts that require specialized tools should be redesigned to use standard tools?

Some parts of Africa are similar to elsewhere, but obvious things would be parts that can deal with either extreme dryness or humidity (both problems in different parts of the continent), good suspension (for areas with bad roads), bright colours (for visibility on shared roads), integration of bike locks and easy self-repair (for people in more remote areas).

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#132

Post by nephihaha »

benj111 wrote: post #33
nchmy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be different about a bike designed for Africa than one designed for anywhere else? What parts that require specialized tools should be redesigned to use standard tools?

Well I'm not African so I don't know. I'm thinking that in the west we either have very cheap bikes that aren't really designed for long term use, and more expensive bikes tend to use fancier parts. Off the top of my head. Steel frame, can be repaired / modified with any old welder. Designed so it can be taken apart with the minimum of generic tools. Standard bearings, brake blocks etc (probably brake blocks that you…

Have made a few suggestions above. Obviously I don't see Africa as a uniform continent, but extremes of dryness and humidity can be found in different parts, in some areas roads are bad and so on. Also good places for bike locks (which we all need), maybe water bottles, cargo features and lighting (since some roads will be unlit (again a general issue.)

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#133

Post by nephihaha »

jvanderbot wrote: post #91
nchmy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly agree that it's incomparably more important to teach a man/village how to fish/build a bike than to give them one. Unfortunately most people who focus on "helping" are grossly incompetent and have largely misaligned incentives (and oversight). As for local innovation, it think it very much depends on where. I've visited and lived in many communities in developing nations in Latin America and there's a dist…

When I went to South Africa last, we went through a few slums. It was comical to see the celebrity "assistance" in the form of e.g., a music production studio + school set up by skrillex, neighboring areas where people lived in shipping crates with stolen electricity jumpered directly from main, and with water tapped off city lines and bucketted in. They dont need djs, they need plubmbers, carpenters, and electrician…

Music, much like sport, is seen by many working class people as a way to make some money, so not completely senseless. Art to a lesser extent.

Carpenters/joiners are a good half-way house, as they can provide both practical assistance to the community as well as selling collectibles/souvenirs or whatever.

The problem is the minute some of these people pick up skills or money, they leave the slums behind. The plumbers and electricians may make better money rigging up office blocks than from fitting out the slums.

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#134

Post by nephihaha »

mschuster91 wrote: post #89
nchmy wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly agree that it's incomparably more important to teach a man/village how to fish/build a bike than to give them one. Unfortunately most people who focus on "helping" are grossly incompetent and have largely misaligned incentives (and oversight). As for local innovation, it think it very much depends on where. I've visited and lived in many communities in developing nations in Latin America and there's a dist…

> I strongly agree that it's incomparably more important to teach a man/village how to fish/build a bike than to give them one. Unfortunately most people who focus on "helping" are grossly incompetent and have largely misaligned incentives (and oversight). It goes deeper than that if you ask me. It's rarely about "helping" in a lot of cases in the first place, and there's no incompetence at play either. Just look at…

Apart from the obvious disclaimer that some parts of Africa function much better than others...

Zimbabwe's agricultural sector was wrecked by handing farms to Mugabe loyalists who didn't know what to do with them. His government didn't just go for whites, but also some of the black farm workers who would have known how to use them.

Likewise, the famine in Ethiopia was not helped by either Mengistu's Marxist government (who used Live Aid money for arms) or the previous set up under Emperor Haile Selassie which was based on clientism.

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#135

Post by cwmoore »

idiotsecant wrote: post #109
cwmoore wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that difference measured, in general? Setting aside cynicism is one thing but what answers are there for skepticism besides the very common moralizing personal attacks? When I see a lot of nonprofit leadership improving their own lot much more reliably than the people “they serve”, I wonder if the handouts are just being politically diverted to the best and most politically valuable promoters. If UBI is off th…

So your honest position that you're arguing here is that literally every nonprofit is not making a difference? Every one of them? What are we even talking about here?

>How is that difference measured?

So it is personal attacks? Are you joking?

Is there no gatekeeping of pools of money?

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#136

Post by cwmoore »

ForHackernews wrote: post #121
cwmoore wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that difference measured, in general? Setting aside cynicism is one thing but what answers are there for skepticism besides the very common moralizing personal attacks? When I see a lot of nonprofit leadership improving their own lot much more reliably than the people “they serve”, I wonder if the handouts are just being politically diverted to the best and most politically valuable promoters. If UBI is off th…

https://www.cartercenter.org/programs/guinea-worm/#by-the-nu... > Since our efforts began in 1986, the incidence of Guinea worm has fallen by more than 99.99% to 10* human cases in 2025

Notice I am not asking for an example. Anecdata of one, and for sure there are many, in isolation is—demonstrably—mostly PR.

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#137

Post by mschuster91 »

nephihaha wrote: post #134
mschuster91 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I strongly agree that it's incomparably more important to teach a man/village how to fish/build a bike than to give them one. Unfortunately most people who focus on "helping" are grossly incompetent and have largely misaligned incentives (and oversight). It goes deeper than that if you ask me. It's rarely about "helping" in a lot of cases in the first place, and there's no incompetence at play either. Just look at…

Apart from the obvious disclaimer that some parts of Africa function much better than others... Zimbabwe's agricultural sector was wrecked by handing farms to Mugabe loyalists who didn't know what to do with them. His government didn't just go for whites, but also some of the black farm workers who would have known how to use them. Likewise, the famine in Ethiopia was not helped by either Mengistu's Marxist governmen…

Yeah, a bunch of Africa's problems were entirely self-inflicted. But... Western nations just dumping their surplus on Africa under the guise of "donations" certainly didn't help.

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#138

Post by voakbasda »

functionmouse wrote: post #67
Max536752 wrote: post #54

I liked the aircraft carrier analogy. Some skills can only be preserved by practicing them repeatedly, not by outsourcing them. AI is an incredible tool, but we probably need to be more intentional about which parts of the creative process we hand over.

Any part of the process we hand over goes away forever. This way, society becomes dependent, and M$, OpenAI and Apple see RoI. Any usage, even minor, is at too great a cost.

Certainly no parallels with our manufacturing capabilities, no sir. /s

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#139

Post by jiehong »

If you're in a country like France, where buying fans for your daughter's schools is not allowed [0], or installing your own store-bought AC unit either, making DIY devices seems the easy part, sadly.

[0]: (French) https://www.lexpress.fr/environnement/canicule-il-offre-dix-...

[1]: (French) https://www.lemonde.fr/argent/article/2026/06/19/canicule-de...

Re: Open Source Low Tech

#140

Post by dtj1123 »

idiotsecant wrote: post #82
dtj1123 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this extends to wealthy communities too. Basically every item in my home more complex than a spoon is beyond my capacity to manufacture or repair. A resource that teaches me how to build useful things without relying on a complex supply chain or prohibitively expensive tools would be pretty darn liberating.

You know you already have that resource, right? That's what the internet is. There's nothing stopping you from learning, for example, woodworking today . You just have to start.

Whilst technically possible, becoming a journeyman carpenter, plumber, bricklayer, electrician and plasterer isn't practical for most people, in terms of time or money.

The site we're discussing shortcuts past traditional skills and tools to give you useful items. That's more the kind of resource I have in mind.

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