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This technology is so cool and so crazy that I wonder if it takes a ton of education to be comfortable with the idea that it works. I would guess these guys wou

by lmg643 12y ago

This technology is so cool and so crazy that I wonder if it takes a ton of education to be comfortable with the idea that it works. I would guess these guys would have better mileage selling the product to environmentalists in California than going directly to third world locations. Let America be the bleeding edge for stuff this advanced - "eat our own cooking", to use a choice phrase. We are already consuming much of the world's resources - we can be a model for how to do with less, rather than asking the other guy to start. I read a disturbing article on Bloomberg last year about toilets - India has a project to build toilets and try to get villagers to use them, but they won't. Bill Gates says the world doesn't have the resources to build toilets and plumbing - perhaps he is worried about a second order problem - there might not be the desire, or education is so backwards that we need to solve that first. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-03/india-s-toilet-race-failing-as-villages-don-t-use-them.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-03/india-s-toilet-race... I still can't get this line out of my head: "About 800,000 Indians worked as feces removers in 2008, often carrying excrement in baskets on their heads, an occupation that causes them to be excluded from parts of society." Imagine almost a million people carrying shit in baskets on their heads.

Fastidious 12y ago
That article is amazing, and an eye opener. I did not know more than half of the things it contains, truly amazing. It is not only education or economics (feces removers make a living), but customs, and customs are hard to change. Very hard. Thank you for sharing.
tdaltonc 12y ago
I grew up in Orange County CA which was an early adaptor of water reclamation technology. Every kid in the county took at least one field trips to the water reclamation facility in elementary school. Typically the field trip would be grouped with classroom lessons on the hydrological cycle, chemistry, and ecology. Water reclamation always seemed like the good/obvious thing to do. It wasn't until college that I realized the rest of the US was not as familiar or comfortable with water reclamation.
soperj 12y ago
One thing that really blew me away was my brother talking about his time working in Western Australia, and when he was in a bar bathroom there an Aborigine came in, didn't know what to do, so took a shit in the corner of the room. When you're not used to something, your actions will seem strange, but toilet training a kid isn't easy, so what seems natural to us now, really wasn't too natural at one time.
- vince_refiti 12y ago
  No, that's not the reason. I have come across many rural towns in Australia where business owners will not let Aborigines use the toilets, or demand a fee. That is why.

by lmg643 12y ago

Fastidious 12y ago

That article is amazing, and an eye opener. I did not know more than half of the things it contains, truly amazing. It is not only education or economics (feces removers make a living), but customs, and customs are hard to change. Very hard. Thank you for sharing.

tdaltonc 12y ago

I grew up in Orange County CA which was an early adaptor of water reclamation technology. Every kid in the county took at least one field trips to the water reclamation facility in elementary school. Typically the field trip would be grouped with classroom lessons on the hydrological cycle, chemistry, and ecology. Water reclamation always seemed like the good/obvious thing to do. It wasn't until college that I realized the rest of the US was not as familiar or comfortable with water reclamation.

soperj 12y ago

One thing that really blew me away was my brother talking about his time working in Western Australia, and when he was in a bar bathroom there an Aborigine came in, didn't know what to do, so took a shit in the corner of the room. When you're not used to something, your actions will seem strange, but toilet training a kid isn't easy, so what seems natural to us now, really wasn't too natural at one time.

vince_refiti 12y ago
No, that's not the reason. I have come across many rural towns in Australia where business owners will not let Aborigines use the toilets, or demand a fee. That is why.