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Monday, March 25, 2019

Repair

This was a topic that came up because of recent online discussion of "right to repair" laws. I had initially understood these as laws intended to counter planned obsolescence, but in large part they are to protect businesses that refurbish and resell electronics etc. from being sued (under accusation of violation of intellectual property law).

Kat noted that our culture is very pro-corporate and forces people to be consumers. Would it be possible for people not to be consumers? What kind of legal structures exist that make it easy or difficult to choose not to consume?

Morgan noted that something as simple as a faulty charging cord can turn a sophisticated piece of equipment into a "brick."

Who builds things in your society? What is repairable? Who repairs it (if anyone does)?

Che noted that repairing something often voids a warranty, so we discussed what a warranty is and what it does. Essentially it is an agreement saying that the item is rated to keep working for a period of time. Short-term warranties protect against defects. Longer-term warranties restrict the purchaser so they can only get their product repaired by the company that originally made it.

Why don't companies do more to protect consumers? Where is the benefit? Why not have an onboard surge protector in the computer itself?

Repairing things used to be normal. Now it has become (as Kat says) "hipster and twee." It's also become commercialized so that in order to do a "life hack" you need to buy a product.

Do you own a sautering iron? Kat feels as though she should have one, but says this is likely because she lived on a houseboat where she needed to weld things.

Screws used to be standardized, and most things used screws. Now companies have started using proprietary screws. They will make things that can be assembled without tools, but that can mean they can't be disassembled. Sonically welded plastic is sealed so you can't open it, or so you can't open it without breaking it.

We often assume things should be thrown away, but we aren't even very good at knowing how to throw them away properly. People often ignore recycling rules, for example.

Sometimes you will see a post on social media about decorative repair of clothes, where you patch something and add an embroidered flower or something. This is an option only for people who have the necessary skills.

Culturally, we have lost some of the "hand-me-down" tradition of passing things along to younger siblings or cousins. Clothing has become more common in landfill.

People are having fewer opportunities to learn how to use tools like hammers, etc.

You can also repair other things. If a recipe has gone wrong, you may be able to change it in some way to make it come out all right.

Having knowledge of how something is constructed (object or food!) is useful to knowing how to repair it.

Medical care, especially first aid, can be a kind of repair. Especially if you are on a boat or otherwise isolated from the immediate opportunity to seek care on the outside, you need to have some skill at handling this yourself. Kat thinks having an army medic's kit would be very helpful! We're encouraged to go to experts for healthcare.

Repair could be considered a cultural right and ritual.

There used to be people who would travel around and offer their skills as a tinker to repair pots and pans and other items in the home.

Science fiction loves its engineers and inventors, and repair of spaceships etc. occurs numerous times in Star Trek. However, when you have replicators, disposal and reconstitution atom by atom is an option and makes repair of everyday items less common.

Fantasy has a very interesting thematic concern with repairing what is wrong with the world.

Morgan pointed out how interesting it was that the thirteenth Doctor constructed her own sonic screwdriver.

What would a science-fictional Radio Shack look like?

It's worth taking inspiration from Neal Stephenson and asking how things degrade over time.

We're often too busy in our stories to think about whether things break and whether they need to be repaired.

How often do we look at how things get washed?

Many stories get written by the type of people whose tea appears mysteriously. It's worth taking some time to look for the tea-bringers.

Anne McCaffrey's Harper Hall books were great because they gave some attention to who does menial tasks, and who does labor.

In fantasy, we often have repair, and clockmakers. But if you see a cauldron, who made it? Think about where to find the woodworkers and blacksmiths.

Are some things repairable at home, and others only repairable by experts?

Are ceramics repairable? How?

Often our repairs are visible, and documentable. What would happen if you had nanotech to repair things? How would that effect carbon dating or the other means we use to reconstruct the history of an object?

Was the pot broken for a reason? Sometimes haunted objects get broken or buried in faraway places. Maybe something was broken to annihilate it, and it should not be repaired.

Think about the social context of repair. If everything gets thrown away, repair might be transgressive. If everything gets repaired, getting a new thing might be transgressive.

Poor people might need to repair things more. If you have more money and more leisure, you might dispose of things. Tossing things out is a sign of privilege. Poverty encourages repair, but it means people might not have tools or skills to accomplish the repair.

Kat noted that people who live on farms or boats can still use tools that seem outdated in cities (like a tool to turn wire into a hose clamp!).

In science fiction you don't often see people tying things together. Snaps are much more common. Buttons are a very old technology.

Think about whether an heirloom artifact might be repaired. I used an artifact like this in my 2008 story "Let the Word Take Me."

Science fiction sometimes forgets that people do collect and keep things.

Some cultures are geared to preserve objects and others to destroy them.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this discussion! Dive into Worldbuilding will meet tomorrow at 4pm Pacific to discuss Competitions. I hope you can join us!




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