What role will low-tech play in tomorrow’s society ?

Smart­phones, connec­ted spea­kers, tablets, com­pu­ters, connec­ted watches… High-tech devices are pro­li­fe­ra­ting in our homes. The impact of this tech­no­lo­gi­cal explo­sion on the pla­net is now well known. Only 1% of the rare earths used to manu­fac­ture these objects, such as indium or gal­lium, are recy­cled on a glo­bal scale. Not to men­tion the pol­lu­tion cau­sed by the mas­sive use of data. Over the last ten years or so, the low-tech move­ment has been cam­pai­gning for a new defi­ni­tion of moder­ni­ty and inno­va­tion, where we ques­tion our consump­tion and our habits.

The concept of low-tech was once seen as an oppo­si­tion to pro­gress, a rejec­tion of tech­no­lo­gy in favour of simple, home-made solu­tions. In rea­li­ty, it’s part of a wider move­ment to reflect on our envi­ron­men­tal impact, our needs and our ways of mee­ting them, which dates back to the 1970s. It’s not about going back to the candle, nor is it sim­ply about pro­mo­ting green indus­trial tech­no­lo­gies or eco-desi­gned objects. The Low-Tech Lab defines low tech­no­lo­gies as “objects, sys­tems, tech­niques, ser­vices, know-how, prac­tices, life­styles and ways of thin­king that inte­grate tech­no­lo­gy accor­ding to three main prin­ciples”. These tech­no­lo­gies must be use­ful and meet indi­vi­dual and col­lec­tive needs.

“It’s a ques­tion of col­lec­ti­ve­ly reap­pro­pria­ting needs, asking our­selves toge­ther what is real­ly use­ful and what isn’t,” explains Quen­tin Mateus, engi­neer and direc­tor of research at the Low-Tech Lab. They need to be acces­sible, free of copy­right and as simple as pos­sible so that they can be used by as many people as pos­sible, they need to be local­ly pro­du­ced, they need to be adap­table to the needs and resources of each context, and so on. Last­ly, low-tech pro­ducts must be sus­tai­nable, opti­mi­sed to have the least pos­sible eco­lo­gi­cal and social impact, and as robust as pos­sible, like L’In­cre­vable, a washing machine desi­gned by desi­gners and engi­neers to last 50 years and be easi­ly repai­red and upda­ted by its owners.

Low-tech involves a col­lec­tive, demo­cra­tic and par­ti­ci­pa­tive pro­cess of reflec­tion, deci­sion-making and trai­ning. “You have to help people deve­lop their skills, if they don’t have the abi­li­ty to begin with, so you have to give them free plans and lear­ning fra­me­works, so that they can be more auto­no­mous in repai­ring and adap­ting the object to my needs and context”, explains the engi­neer. There real­ly is no pre­cise defi­ni­tion of low-tech, no label or spe­ci­fi­ca­tions, but the concept, which is based on broad prin­ciples, can be applied to a wide range of areas : mobi­li­ty, digi­tal uses, hou­sing, food, edu­ca­tion, culture, etc.

Low-tech also has a social and poli­ti­cal dimen­sion. In 2019, the think-tank La Fabrique éco­lo­gique publi­shed a note on these sober and resi­lient tech­no­lo­gies, signed by a num­ber of players in the move­ment, inclu­ding Phi­lippe Bihouix and Aman­dine Gar­nier of the Low-Tech Lab, as well as Bru­no Tas­sin, direc­tor of research at the Ecole des Ponts Paris­Tech, and Marc Dar­ras, chair­man of the Cen­tra­liens “Ingé­nieur et Déve­lop­pe­ment Durable” pro­fes­sio­nal group.The note explains that “this approach is not just tech­no­lo­gi­cal, but also sys​te​mic​.It aims to chal­lenge eco­no­mic, orga­ni­sa­tio­nal, social and cultu­ral models”. So, it’s also about ima­gi­ning new models of consump­tion, pro­duc­tion, and gover­nance. “It’s a mis­take to sim­ply want to replace high-tech with low-tech out of concern for the envi­ron­ment. It’s about ques­tio­ning high-tech and its world”, says Quen­tin Mateus.

Accor­ding to Mar­ti­na Knoop, a phy­si­cist and direc­tor of the Mis­sion pour les ini­tia­tives trans­verses et inter­dis­ci­pli­naires (MITI) at the CNRS, which has alrea­dy put out two calls for research pro­jects to pro­mote “fru­gal sciences”, science and resear­chers have their right­ful place in this pro­cess of ques­tio­ning. “Low-tech approaches are fru­gal approaches. It’s about doing just as well with less invest­ment in mate­rials, ener­gy, research time and so on,” she explains. To achieve this, resear­chers are loo­king at sim­pler pro­cesses, ins­tru­ments and sen­sors that consume fewer natu­ral resources. All dis­ci­plines are involved.

By way of example, one pro­ject selec­ted by the CNRS is concer­ned with moni­to­ring air pol­lu­tion. Méli­na Macouin, a resear­cher at the Geos­ciences and Envi­ron­ment Labo­ra­to­ry in Tou­louse, is using plane tree bark as bio­sen­sors to ana­lyse the pre­sence of nano­par­ticles. The stu­dy is a blend of low-tech and par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry science, with Tou­louse resi­dents invi­ted to put up gar­lands of plane tree bark in their homes. This approach to citi­zen science, which is often low-tech, is beco­ming increa­sin­gly popu­lar, accor­ding to the direc­tor of MITI. “Doing bet­ter with less is an inherent part of research, in all our pro­cesses. It is some­times more dif­fi­cult and com­plex to invent a sim­pler, less ener­gy-consu­ming pro­cess that per­forms just as well. Constraints can be a source of inven­ti­ve­ness and the basis of future inno­va­tions”, says the physicist.

What role will scien­tists play in a low-tech socie­ty ? “If we are to put in place the condi­tions neces­sa­ry for the deve­lop­ment of a low-tech eco­no­my in all its dimen­sions, these new forms of research, which are also more dis­tri­bu­ted and more firm­ly roo­ted in each context, have their full role to play, and in the pro­cess a sense of pur­pose to redis­co­ver. We need brain­po­wer, col­lec­tive intel­li­gence and a high level of social, eco­no­mic and tech­ni­cal engi­nee­ring to dis­mantle what is no lon­ger viable, to real­lo­cate, to recom­pose appro­priate sec­tors and a lace­work of socio­tech­ni­cal orga­ni­sa­tions. It will take time and human intel­li­gence, but not neces­sa­ri­ly a high data through­put”, argues Quen­tin Mateus.

A low-tech socie­ty the­re­fore requires us to rethink the way we prac­tise science and tech­no­lo­gy, as well as the place of indus­try. For the Low-Tech Lab repre­sen­ta­tive, it’s not a ques­tion of get­ting rid of the sec­tor and our indus­trial fabric. Once again, we need to think in terms of needs.

In 2021, ADEME, the French Agen­cy for Eco­lo­gi­cal Tran­si­tion, has drawn up a sce­na­rio for a “fru­gal gene­ra­tion” to achieve car­bon neu­tra­li­ty by 2050. This would include “res­pect for nature” and the esta­blish­ment of a pro­duc­tion sys­tem based on low-tech, “more robust and repai­rable by citi­zens”. It would involve cut­ting elec­tri­ci­ty consump­tion by a third for spe­ci­fic uses such as elec­tro­nics and hou­se­hold appliances, swit­ching to more exten­sive far­ming, signi­fi­cant­ly redu­cing mobi­li­ty (by encou­ra­ging cycling, for example), relo­ca­ting cer­tain pro­duc­tion pro­cesses and redu­cing demand for pro­ducts and ser­vices by giving pride of place to the “eco­no­my of func­tio­na­li­ty and repair”. The ove­rall demand for ener­gy – elec­tri­ci­ty, heat, gas and petrol – would be hal­ved com­pa­red to 2015. Green­house gas emis­sions would fall by 42 mil­lion tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Sirine Azouaoui