Heirloom Technology

As I see it, many of the technologies mentioned in the article are still very much in a frantic phase of development. The technologies are far from mature but once the technology reaches a maturing level, most of the problems will go away. Once your phone has better than eye resolution, battery power to last a full day without charging, sufficient computer power to run any realistic phone app, then attention will turn far more to durability and quality, at least that is my hope.

There are at least a couple of excellent science fiction short stories (whose names escape me now) that address this very issue of the disposable society and quite frankly the downside is quite frightening.

I really gave much thought at the way we spend money on gadgets until a friend of mine told me he wanted to buy an iPhone 5 for his girlfriend as a birthday present. And then it dawned on me that an iPhone 5 (without a contract) costs as much as some really nice jewelry that this her granddaughter will probably inherit.

It's not even about conspicuous consumption versus a more frugal lifestyle, it's about spending 800$ on something that is going to be tossed away or broken in 24 months.

In the context of this article, I want to recommend Design For The Real World by Victor Papanek. Many of the ideas mentioned here have been made popular by Papanek decades ago.