I've been toying with the idea of self sufficiency and self-regulating systems. Everywhere in nature we see self regulation, with organisms embedded in environmental symbiosis whereby they produce as much as they consume; the obvious example being plants intaking sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. Human civilisation on the other hand seems to be the only case that's progressed to twist this law of nature into something sinister, through resource consumption and pollution, and the consequences are damning.
November's printed issue of Wired talks about The Old Trafford, the ManU football stadium getting a revamp. I initially glossed over the article with indifference, but the mention of these "piezoelectric rockers" capturing energy to heat seats caught my eye.
Upon further investigation, it turns out piezoelectricity is electrical energy that is captured inside certain solid materials, including organic matter like bones and DNA!
Environmental activists have been harking on government and big businesses to change their strategies and prioritise the ecosystem for decades, and the topic's become so repetitively discussed that, as much as I hate to say it, it's almost gotten boring. We all know we're destroying the environment, but the paradigm shifts that need to happen in order to achieve sustainability on a global scale take way too long to come into effect. Manufacturing systems, business strategies, government regulations, and market consumption all need to be completely reformed, starting from square one.
So what if we could target sustainability on an individual scale? What if a person could become completely removed from the hierarchical bodies that provide their resources, and instead become one hundred percent self sufficient, without compromising their presence and input as a functional member of society? I'm not talking about binning my iPhone, hiking to the mountains and living by candlelight. What I want is to find some kind of mediation between the technology available to me and my natural biological rhythms and behaviour as an organism to find a more harmonic relationship between what I consume and what I produce in my environment. For example perhaps my movements throughout the day could be stored as kinetic energy and supply the power in my house. Or maybe the electrical impulses in my heartbeat or brain signals could be harnessed somehow.
Not too sure about the scientific details on this one, but here's some interesting reference material to start off this in terms of harnessing electricity:
Soccket by Uncharted Play converts energy made when playing with the football into light – 30 minutes of play supplies 3 hours of LED light.
November's printed issue of Wired talks about The Old Trafford, the ManU football stadium getting a revamp. I initially glossed over the article with indifference, but the mention of these "piezoelectric rockers" capturing energy to heat seats caught my eye.
Upon further investigation, it turns out piezoelectricity is electrical energy that is captured inside certain solid materials, including organic matter like bones and DNA!
