[Rockhounds] Living in the Iron Age?: front end loaders & bulldozers

[tango juli]

I laughed at your first paragraph Alan.
The running joke w/ my fiance is that all I want for Xmas or birthday is a front end loader.  As a group of friends and I approached an old mining colony this weekend, I saw one at the side of the road, abandoned, and fantasized about what it would take to restore it :)  If I won the lottery, I'd probably be doing just what you describe, and become the scourge I curse under my breath somethings as I approach a locality that has been throughly wiped out. 

But instead, it was cold steel chisels, screwdrivers, and various non-technical tools to extricate the little delicacies. I do appreciate the fact however that I'm only rewarded for my patience using these rather blunt methods. 

Tina

Message: 13
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 10:46:24 -0600 (MDT)
From: Alan Silverstein <ajs at frii.com>
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Why are we still living in the Iron Age???!
To: rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com
Message-ID: <20080529164624.29A8A1CC35 at io.frii.com>

Forgive me while I add my ruminations for a moment...

- Good point about it being a good thing that collecting isn't any
  easier, else there'd more quickly be nothing left to collect.  For
  example, when wandering around surface-hunting alluvial pebbles, I
  often fantasize stripping the top couple inches off the land with a
  machine, running it through a wet washer and then a fine screen to
  remove the dirt, then sending it down a conveyor belt -- all for more
  complete and efficient hunting!

- And of course, this is entirely DOABLE.  Destructive, pointless,
  sure...  And, fortunately, economically infeasible in most cases.
  There's the key.  I observe that many technological predictions turn
  out to be technologically accurate, and it's the economics that are
  harder to foresee.  GPS, cell phones, laptops, they are now
  widespread.  General aviation, mostly affordable only by the
  wealthier.  Helicopters in every garage?  Maybe never.  Moon travel,
  sure we can do it, but it's waaay expensive.

- I also observe two human patterns.  The first is that humans, being
  clever, are mostly pretty good optimizers (read for example, "Guns,
  Germs, and Steel").  The second is that we rapidly adapt to, and take
  for granted, whatever emerges as the "optimal envelope".  Sometimes
  ancient technology is still the best -- at least from a cost/benefit
  point of view.  Sometimes leading edge tech surpasses all competition.
  Either way, though, we quickly take it as a given and then ask, "is
  that the best we can do?"

So remember that when you're out in the field collecting rocks, just
like your ancient ancestors did in the stone age, that you don't HAVE to
do it to survive, like they did...  It's just for fun...  And, "things
worth doing for fun, are worth doing badly."

Cheers,
Alan Silverstein

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