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Where can I learn more about the soviet culture around industrial equipment that you’re describing?

• daniel-cussen 5y ago
  I talked to people who emigrated to Cuba for around a decade. And it's not comfortable equipment, like it's lacking all kinds of "features" that American equipment has, and that are actually nice, but that never got incorporated into the design. So I'm reading up about it but remote controls were never a big thing, it was not like in America where they were an obvious part of the television, in the Bloc you had to manipulate the knobs mounted on the device, and that meant getting up every time. It was all about the basic bottom line functionality. So I hear that in Cuba the Soviet air conditioning is basic and brutal, for better and for worse. Apparently most Soviet electronics sacrifice efficiency (energy efficiency, and light weight, and economizing materials) for effectiveness. There is a reason for this: under Socialism, capital goods were always short, but they had to be available. Demanding an air conditioning was basically done as a political favor, and the economics weren't good. Therefore what the factory wanted, really really wanted, was for the customer to take his air conditioning or tractor and never come back. No planned obsolescence, repeat customers were the bane of their existence. So they made them last.
  • kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
    Remote controls were a niche novelty until the 80's. Everyone got up to change the channel unless you had an expensive set using chimes or a wired control box.