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inside air purifiers, GPS systems and other gizmos, cars will, according to James, soon need 24 volt systems which will require bigger batteries and bigger alternators—all of which increases complexity and drives up manufacturing costs.
If reducing complexity is good for organizational health, as John Anderson noted in a previous article, why isn’t it also true for products?
It is, but it goes counter to the cultural trend to spoil customers with more and more capabilities to convince them of the merits of a new product that can then be sold at a higher price. But at some point customers— be they for cars, personal electronic devices computers, or coffee makers, are going to say: “Stop. I want to get off. Give me something cheaper and simpler.” (Isn’t that one of the secrets to the phenomenal success of Southwest Airlines? No frills, minor inconvenience, minimize operating complexity and offer the customer an irresistible price.)
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All this capability also deprives people more and more of the need to use their bodies. Rolling up a car window by hand is considered a huge imposition by the post- mechanical generation—until the electronics inconveniently fail. And cars themselves, along with TVs, are probably the greatest contributors to the sedentary life that causes obesity and general poor health in Americans. Even cars suffer from the sedentary life— and if cars do, what does that mean for us humanoids?
If you don’t use it you lose it. We all know the truth of that old dictum. Cars, as the Shaws point out, are also made in man’s image. They are extensions of the human body and
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