Obligation to Repair
I feel an obligation to repair, but sometimes the modern worlds artificially limits this ability.
I am a handy man and a repair man, I always prefer to fix something up rather than to buy something new. Partially this is because I’m a maker and partially because I’m overwhelmed by the poor disposal systems which exist. Plastics and materials inside of our technologies often end up in landfills, even something simple like a vacuum has a substantial volume of plastics, metals, and it’s a terrifying statistic that only 10% of our recyclable waste is getting recycled. The problem is that I end up with piles of things which could probably only be repaired by hours of investigation or maybe a specialist… Sometimes I pop things open and I’m surprised how easy the problem is to identify, mechanical parts can be challenging but at least plausible to repair, but removing chips is often impractical, and how the F does anyone ever get the right chip even for something simple like a dvd player, or a video chip for a wii? Sometimes I get lucky with just my basic senses and common logic. One time I had a dvd player given to me because it would freeze when in use for a time… I found 1 chip was getting real hot, and added some active cooling to the area, and got it working again for many years. Other times all it takes is a good clean of the components and you can get another year out of items. I have know people to toss vacuums because the beater was bound with hair and wire. If you don’t bother to take the time with your own things, no one will. Cars, PC and animals are all the same way, maintain them with proper care and you will get long lives, neglect the attention to ensure things see an early grave.
I’d like to share 2 simple things I had a nightmare repairing in recent times.
Fan Actuator
There is only 1 plastic gear missing 1 or 2 teeth. In an ideal world the gear could be replaced. In our world I had to replace the whole fixture, because the Actuator was fused shut
Car AC Fan Actuator
There is only 1 plastic gear missing 2 teeth. In an ideal world the gear could be replaced. In our world I had to replace the whole fixture, because the Actuator was fused shut. Damage to the other components was caused by me trying to root cause the failure.
Smart light
Completely closed and steel case glued shut with silicone.
As pointed out regularly by Louis Rossmann this problem isn’t isolated to macbook’s closed wall garden policy. Many other companies are participating in pretty aggressive anti-repair tactics… Everything from tractors to auto has special synchronization so even if you had the parts, you need MDG to sanction your repair because they have the crypto codes to unlock the FW…
I read this article on consumer electronics, and it summarized the average’s person’s view quite nicely.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/consumer-electronics/gadgets/wrong-right-to-repair
People seem to think that If I can buy a new one for $100 why does it cost $40 to repair the old one…. This is why we currently don’t have the right to repair. One could make the argument that the parts should be guaranteed to be in stock for a certain amount of time, but ultimately this would not solve our problem. What we need is to increase availability, openness and transparency across sub components.
This is especially true for highly depreciating assets like cars (arguably PCs). at some point the parts cost more than the car’s worth, so we ‘total’ it. then thousands of dollars might be scrapped because of a thousand dollar part that contains only a couple hundred in of raw material. We don’t care where it goes, just away from us… Crush the whole thing down and it will probably get recycled… But why? Why can’t we simplify body types and reuse more? Why can’t we simplify engine types and reuse more?
The nature of the culture and demands of manufacturing require a constant stream of new goods… We can only fight this as individuals so. Unless someone can put together an open source vehicle from the ground up we will be forever trapped in these same cycles of waste.
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