KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY

HOW CAN WE KNOW THAT CURRENT KNOWLEDGE IS AN IMPROVEMENT UPON PAST KNOWLEDGE?

Photograph of Yeti Cup, Rancho Redondo. 15 May. 2021. Author’s personal collection.

This image is a Yeti cup. Yeti cups are widely known for their double-wall vacuum insulation which keeps drinks cold (or hot) twice as long as its plastic counterparts. In other words, it maintains a constant temperature for the drink for long periods of time. The creation of insulated cups have derived from knowledge on mechanical engineering. Mechanical engineering is an area that comes from the combination of both knowledge in physics and knowledge in mathematics with scientific materials to create mechanical systems. With this in mind, there are several branches to mechanical engineering, and one of those is thermal engineering or thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is the branch that deals with heat and temperature. It is with this branch of mechanical engineering that people were able to create thermal cups with the idea that the temperature of the drink does not regulate.

With the knowledge that people had in mechanical engineering, they were able to improve those and apply them to other areas. For instance, when we have a drink and want it to be cold, we place ice cubes, but then these would melt the drink would lose that cold temperature and go back to its room temperature; but when people began to improve their knowledge in thermodynamics, they would take into consideration these observations. Which is why Yeti cups are famous. They created a cup that has double steel walls with a vacuum in between them. This vacuum keeps the content of the bottle at the same temperature. Our knowledge in physics has allowed us to discover the use of vacuum and combining this with mathematical knowledge we are able to create insulated items, some of which can be as small as a cup or as big as a fridge. Our current knowledge has derived from improvements upon past knowledge.

Photograph of Finca Ayacam. 15 May. 2021. Author’s personal collection.

This image is a milking machine which is undergoing the process of milking a cow. There is a suction tube for every teat, which will connect all together at the bottom and finally take the milk through a large tube goin on the top and onto a tank that keeps the milk cool and fresh. When milk was first encountered, it was knowledge that had to be developed, and now it is a basic knowledge for everyone in the world. Growing up everybody is taught that milk comes from cows, but the technology used to obtain milk has developed and changed throughout the years. Before improvements in technology, the only way to milk cows was by hand. Given that this process was by hand, it would take a lot of time to milk the cows, fill the bucket and repeat again; and this would also tire out the workers because of the time they had to dedicate to the milking process. There was also a factor that affected the cows when it came to milking. Since the only way people could milk cows was by hand, sometimes this would affect the cow because, firstly, the force used to pull down the teat to pour milk was sometimes very harsh, and this would hurt the cows. Secondly, since they had to use their hands, these would be dirty and contain bacterias which would affect the teats of the cows which would heavily affect their well being. This is the excuse that can be used in the framework of ethics; because the decision to do it by hand was not ethical, but it was rather lacking knowledge. At this instant in time, improvements in technology have allowed to increase the production of milk and have created various milk based products that are popular and sold worldwide.

"How To Move Large Rocks". This Old House, 2021, source .

This image shows a tutorial on how to move a boulder. There is a man with a metal stick over a brick and under the boulder. When it comes to moving a rock, our basic knowledge is to grab the rock and move it, but when it comes to moving a boulder, our knowledge needs to be improved. To be able to move a boulder, people had to apply their knowledge of physics, and came up with a plank to move boulders. The idea was that by placing a metal stick over a brick would create a plank, and later this would be placed below the boulder. In this case when force is applied to the stick, the stick would lift the boulder and move it. The question that takes place is, what happens if we are not able to move bigger boulders that metal sticks cannot sustain? How much effort can a person do to move such boulders? What if the boulder is a threat and cannot be removed?

All of these questions were the base of advancements in technology and improvements in knowledge. With the use of knowledge in engineering people were able to design new machinery that would help with construction and therefore with the removal of boulders. A great example of ths is a crane. This would shape our knowledge to think that everything related to moving structures is now going to be dealt with machinery. With the advancements in knowledge and technology people have created a crane that can go up to 250m of height, and can lift objects that weigh up to 60 tonnes. With the creation of the crane, people are now able to move boulders that cannot be removed by hand. We can also see how, with the improvement of knowledge in physics, a crane does not use the same method as the picture. Instead, the crane has ropes, which in this case are attached to the boulder, then it lifts the boulder and moves it