Link
Chaya Leverton on Nov 3rd 2012
This is a link to Toyota’s Children’s Web Site. This website is a cute, interactive website that shows children how cars are made. I know we’re not children, but I do think this website provides a very basic and illustrative insight into how specialized and complex the car-making process is. There are so many steps to making a car – stamping, wielding, painting, making the engine, assembling the car, inspecting the car, transporting the car, and selling the car- and there are so many different people and experts involved in each step of the way. It’s hard to say that one singular person knows how to or is able to produce a car on his own. This means that every person in need of a car, which includes most people, must rely on others and cooperate with others to produce and acquire a car; it was not this complex for a person to acquire a horse and wagon in the olden days. This website complements my curiosity of how we are becoming more inter-dependent and less self-sufficient as technology progresses and becomes more complex.
Filed in Uncategorized | One response so far
I really like the wagon-car metaphor you’ve got going, and I’m really interested to see the idea behind it once it’s fully fleshed out. You could also examine the change in the kinds of inventions being created it over time. For example, inventions of the Industrial Revolution were created as a means of making difficult tasks easier to manage. However, modern day inventions are more geared towards leisure — iPods aren’t strictly necessary in the same way that tractors were to farmers in the 1800’s. Just an idea for you to chew on.