Living, Reinvented: The Technology of Abundance and Constraints

We live in two worlds: one filled with abundance and the other with constraints. Each has its own favorite—or essential to survival—inventions and directions. Each has been deeply affected by technology.

The abundant world has access to the Internet and other educational tools, to the latest advances in medicine, to culinary choices from around the globe, and up until recently, access to "plenty of" energy. This abundance can lead to waste since most everyday objects are easier and cheaper to replace than fix. But sometimes this excess can lead to creation—a reinvention of waste—as we see in the pages of Make magazine.

The constrained world has to make do with what's available. Why scrimp and sacrifice for a computer when most people have mobile phones with an SMS server that can do the job just fine? With limited food, water, fuel, medicine, it's the people and their ideas that are often the cheapest part of the equation. Their technology looks to collaboration and connection with fewer resources—almost the opposite of the industrialized world which seeks to make each individual as effective as possible.

What technologies cross the divide? How do the two interact and cross-pollinate? On the surface, they wouldn't seem to overlap, but on deeper examination, inhabitants of both worlds learn from each other constantly.

Here are some areas at the intersection of abundance and constraint we'll be exploring at the 2009 edition of ETech, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference:

• City Tech
• Materials & Mechanics
• Personalized Healthcare
• Mobile & The Web
• Geek Family
• Synthetic Biology
• Nomadism & Shedworking
• Sustainable Life
• Life Hacking & Information Overload

The Call for Participation is now open—submit your proposal by
September 17

If you're a hacker, researcher, technologist, strategist, maker, and/or doer with ideas to contribute to the discussion, we want to hear from you. Submit a proposal to speak at the eighth annual ETech, happening March 9-12, 2009 in San Jose, California.

Important Dates

The submission deadline for all proposals is September 17.
Registration opens in November 2008.