How many people does it take to turn on a light bulb? Well, it's not what you think.
tech is hard. we do not realize how much of a collective effort it is, simply to turn on a light bulb.
I was sitting in one of my favorite class - the “Perspectives on Grand challenges of engineering” (which also happens to be the hardest class right now) - and my professor asked a rather intriguing question -
“How many people does it take to turn on a light bulb?”
Oh yes, the answer is simple. One person. Me. I just flip the switch, which closes the circuit and turns on the light bulb. it’s not that deep. That’s it! right? right?….
So I was curious, and put out a tweet asking the same question.
We as a society don’t realize how everything that just ‘works’ today is a collective effort of humanity.
That light? yes, it just works when you flick the switch. But it’s not really you turning on the light, is it? You just made some way for electricity to reach it.
Someone else set up that system. maybe whoever made your building. Someone else got that electricity running in the first place. Someone else is actively working at a mine to get the fossil fuels that generates the electricity. Someone else made that glass, filament, copper, plastic needed for that bulb and system.
You get the point, it’s an endless loop. To turn on a lightbulb, it takes not only hundreds of thousands of people, but it is the collective effort of the entire humanity, past and present.
Society enables technology. Society drives these innovations. it’s not the other way forward.
I used to be on the “technological determinism” side - those who think that technology drives societal change. In a way, that’s also true. Technology is changing our social and economic structures. But those structures enabled technology in the first place.
It’s the classic chicken and egg problem. Technology only enables society to be better because society, collectively, enables technology to exist.
Is that too much tech-optimism? Yes. it is.
So, next time you turn on the lights, or sit in a car, think of how many people worked together to give you that perfect experience. We as society are doing a good job.
Sometimes, appreciating the things around us makes us understand them better. It makes us curious, question things. And that’s what I want you, as the reader to take away from this post.
Stay curious.
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PS: you can write for us if you have an idea. just shoot me an email dhravya@smort.in thx!