- Thomas Thwaites attempted to build a toaster from scratch. A toaster is an everyday item that most people use, however, in Thwaites’ mind, a toaster is far more complex than that. As explained in the lecture, a toaster is made up of hundreds of individual pieces that are manufactured all over the world. Thwaites wanted to build this toaster using pieces that he personally manufactured. The toaster he built briefly worked, but shortly burst into flames, which Thwaites considered a partial success. His project speaks to the complexity of development because it is difficult for someone to be truly self-sufficient in this world. Thwaites could have easily bought a toaster from a company, but that toaster would have consisted of hundreds of parts that were derived from their own individual sources, even the toaster company is relying on others to produce the parts they need. Thwaites was able to build his toaster for way cheaper than if he had bought the toaster, but it only worked for a couple of seconds. Through this project, Thwaites was able to exemplify that manufacturing your own materials, or being self-sufficient, can be cheaper and has its own benefits, however, relying on others for the things you need is often easier and more accessible for most people, but relying on others can enable exploitation, which is the dilemma that the world is faced with when discussing self-sustainability.
- Barder believes that most economic models fail at accurately describing and predicting growth. The Harrod-Domar economic model states that increasing output can also increase capital and labour when output, capital, and labour are combined. Essentially, if you want to make more money, you simply have to increase labour or capital. Barder refutes this point by applying it to the incomes per person between Ghana and South Korea. Ghana and South Korea had comparable populations, so similar amounts of labour, and the same ability to make capital off of products, except South Korea’s incomes per person skyrocketed in the 1970s while Ghana’s did not. Barder insists that this phenomenon in South Korea and Ghana cannot be explained using the Harrod-Domar economic model simply because the model is inaccurate at describing why countries’ economies grow. Barder also discusses the Solow model in his talk. Robert Solow’s neoclassical growth model is similar to the Harrod-Domar model, but it accounts for a technical change component. Barder argues that not only is this not a model, but blaming social differences in countries on their lack of technology is not rational in today’s society. In order to hold technology accountable for a country’s weak performance, according to the Solow model, technology and other technical outlets need to be on a steady decline in the country for several consecutive years. Technology, ideas, and knowledge spread fast nowadays, so a technological decline of that magnitude is nearly impossible, and not the reason for economic divergences between countries.
- Steve Jones is now an evolutionary biologist that was hired by Unilever to help them design a spray nozzle. After the scientists at Unilever were stumped on how to create a better nozzle that would crystalize soap into a powder form, Jones was able to come up with a design that worked after testing more than forty generated variations of the original Unilever nozzle. One of Jones’ generations was a hundred times more effective at crystallizing soap than the model that Unilever had come up with, which demonstrates that adaptive change is a necessary component of genuine human development and evolution. We should be constantly learning and seeking out new solutions for problems that exist in our society. Unilever could have kept their original model, but they actively sought out a more efficient one. The same process could be applied to humans. We take our current state, acknowledge the problems within our society, and instead of coming to terms with an unremarkable environment, we can put effort into improving our circumstances through the help of data science.
- Haile Sellasie was the emperor of the feudal dynasty in Ethiopia before it fell in 1974. Author Ryszard Kapuscinski wrote about the royal life of Sellasie in his book The Emperor. While Kapuscinski almost glorified Sellasie’s life, he was also able to highlight how the poverty in Ethiopia existed because high ranking officials in the government, like Sellasie, depleted the country’s wealth and used it to maintain a glamorous life while leaving the rest of the population in economic ruins. The dynamic present in Ethiopia at this time is far more common than people may think, as current systemic change is being prevented by powerful individuals and institutions that profit off of their constituents’ economic and social misery. Amartya Sen would describe this imbalance as a government actively contributing to unfreedom in their society. I would agree with that assessment. Top ranking officials are knowingly withholding rights and opportunities to exercise those rights from their citizens, disabling them from being free. Thus, they remain subjects to an oppressive government and have no choice but to rely on their oppressors, creating a deep imbalance that is extremely hard, if not impossible, to escape.