☮ ♥ ♬ 🧑💻<p>“There’s a common misconception that state-of-the-art technology has to be expensive, energy consumptive and hard to engineer. That’s because we have been persuaded to believe that <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/InnovativeTechnology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>InnovativeTechnology</span></a> is whatever bombastic billionaires claim it is, whether that’s commercial <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/spacecraft" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>spacecraft</span></a> or the endless iterations of generative <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/AItools" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AItools</span></a>.</p><p>As the <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/Canadian" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Canadian</span></a> <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/technologist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>technologist</span></a> and <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/engineer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>engineer</span></a> <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/UrsulaFranklin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>UrsulaFranklin</span></a> once said, fantasies of technology would have it that innovation is always “investment-driven, shiny, lab-born, experimental, exciting”. But more often than not, in the real world, it is “<a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/NeedsDriven" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NeedsDriven</span></a>, <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/scrappy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>scrappy</span></a>, on <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/location" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>location</span></a>, <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/iterative" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>iterative</span></a>, <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/practical" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>practical</span></a>, <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/mundane" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>mundane</span></a>”. </p><p>The real pioneering <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/technologies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>technologies</span></a> of today are genuinely useful <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/systems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>systems</span></a> I like to call “frugal tech”, and they are brought to life not by eccentric billionaires but by people doing more with less. They don’t impose <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/TopDown" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>TopDown</span></a> “<a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/solutions" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>solutions</span></a>” that seem to complicate our lives while making a few people very rich. It turns out that genuinely <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/innovative" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>innovative</span></a> <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/technology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>technology</span></a> really can set people free.” — Eleanor Drage</p><p><a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/OpEd" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>OpEd</span></a> / <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/EleanorDrage" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>EleanorDrage</span></a> / <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/tech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>tech</span></a> / <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/FrugalTech" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FrugalTech</span></a> / <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/Cambridge" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Cambridge</span></a> <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/LeverhulmeCentre" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LeverhulmeCentre</span></a> / <a href="https://ioc.exchange/tags/FutureOfIntelligence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FutureOfIntelligence</span></a> <<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/02/billionaire-big-tech-frugal-elon-musk-innovation" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/commentisfree/</span><span class="invisible">2025/aug/02/billionaire-big-tech-frugal-elon-musk-innovation</span></a>></p>