Constructal Design of Animate and Inanimate Systems: An Answer to Consumerism?

Abstract

After the Industrial Revolution, the average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. The world’s average per capita income increased over tenfold, while the world’s population increased over sixfold in the two centuries that followed [1, 2]. As a result, a consumption society appeared in the period post industrial revolution, in which the new industrial machinery allowed for the automation of the production of consumption items. The immediate consequence was the appearance of the worker in replacement of the artisan, i.e., less qualified individuals started to do the same tasks as more qualified ones, with greater productivity. Wisdom and creativity lost power to the factory owners. Therefore, the great corporations started to decide when, where, how, and to whom a service would be provided.