Creole Technology
Dec 23, 2024 technologymaintenanceadaptation
David Edgerton’s term from The Shock of the Old (2006). Old technologies persist because they work and because replacing them costs more than the marginal benefit. When new contexts demand adaptation, old technologies get repurposed.
Cuba after the Soviet collapse: 380,000 horses replaced 40,000 tractors by the late 1990s. The horses weren’t nostalgia — they were the available working technology. German forces used 625,000 horses invading the Soviet Union in 1941.
Creole technology challenges the assumption that progress means adoption of the newest methods. Most of the world runs on maintained, adapted, repurposed technologies — not the cutting edge.
Go Deeper
Books
- The Shock of the Old by David Edgerton — The source of the concept. Challenges narratives of technological progress by showing how old technologies persist and adapt.
- Exquisite Corpse by Penelope Rosemont — On surrealist techniques of creative repurposing and adaptation.
- Repair: The Impulse to Restore in a Fragile World by Elizabeth Spelman — Philosophy of maintenance and adaptation over replacement.
Essays
- Essays on Cuban “resolver” culture — How necessity drove technological adaptation after the Soviet collapse.
Related: [[maintenance]], [[lindy-effect]]