Made to Break Last 3rd pg 186-281

In the last part of "Made to Break", the author Giles Slade begins to talk about knowledge and skills involving applications on computers. He brings up the idea that the information that people have right now about technology is going to be close to irrelevant in 10-15 years. For example, people have the knowledge of using Word processor and are able to type words fast on a document. But Slade is trying to say that that particular skill or knowledge may not be useful in the future because technology is made to keep advancing. That is how companies make so much money on their products. The older technology is outdated and therefore the new technology is sold for the same amount of money that the older technology was sold for when it was "new". Technology obsolesce, as mentioned in my previous posts, plays a huge part in technology and its advances. Slade says, "The speed at which this technological obsolesce occurred became obvious during Apollo's last flight in 1975, when American astronauts aboard this joint Apollo-Soyuz docking mission carried with them programmable HP-65 pocket calculators that were several time's more powerful than the capsule's inboard computer designed less than a decade before" (pg. 197).

In the last chapters, Slade brings the up the problem of technology in terms of hazardous waste. There are many technological products that still work, that are thrown away because consumers buy new products that are more updated than the old ones. These waste can cause health problems for people in the US and affects the whole wide world for that matter. That is why Slade thinks that obsolesce plays a part in harming the world because these products are being outdated so quickly that the waste piles gain more and more electronic waste that can be a health threat to people who live near these landfills. Slade states, "E-waste is not the only problem associated with cell phones. The introduction of every new technology brings with it a complex set of challenges, some of what cannot be recognized initially. In the 1980s, these were referred to as "technological "hazards." Today, they are usually described with the more neutral term "technological risk," a phrase which encompasses many more issues than the creation and disposal of hazardous e-waste" (pg. 277).
As you can see obsolesce has an indirect link to harming American society and also puts the American society's mindset in having to purchase companies' products that will be outdated by their newer products that will bring in revenue for the corporates and bring in more "technological risks" into American society for American society to feel health problems from the very same products they use themselves.
Smart

-ChristoPHO