I believe that the next step in my research should be to categorise the different elements of a project according to the characteristics of the technology they represent. Because if I do that, I can start to understand the types of characteristic that exist, and therefore the range of impacts that an element can be expected to have if it can be accurately said in advance to have a certain technological characteristic.

Example 1: I acquire an iPad, and suddenly I can get through my emails 50% more quickly than before. That is an ‘accelerator’, because it has sped up an existing process.

Example 2: I acquire a new set of strings for my violin. Let’s say they have a unique set of qualities that allow me to produce sounds that I could never create before, without doing anything differently in the way I play. The (sound production) process isn’t altered, but the output is. Let’s call that an ‘alternator’.

I’m making up words as I go along here: if you don’t like them, please feel free to suggest an alternative!

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Here’s where I’ve got to so far …

Accelerator: speeds something up
Alternator: changes the output of a process without changing the process itself

More to follow…