Welcome to the Saltworks
Why “the Saltworks”?
Salt is essential for human survival and, according to Mark Kurlansky, the author of a fascinating book titled “Salt: A World History,” was one of the most sought after commodities in human history until about 100 years ago, when innovations in manufacturing and distribution drove the cost down—and the availability up—to a point where we can hardly imagine that salt once fueled wars and financed empires. Salt continues to serve us in more than 14,000 ways—most of which most of us are unaware of—including the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, soaps, water softeners, and textile dyes.
Similarly, the developed world has become inextricably dependent on technology for its survival and on a constant stream of new technology for its economic health. New technologies such as toilets and clocks were at first available only to a very few; it could take centuries before ordinary people could own such things. Today’s innovations in manufacturing and distribution fuel the almost instant commoditization of new technology, quickly giving computers, cell phones, and iPods the ubiquity of salt shakers.
Then there is salt’s broad metaphorical importance which Kurlansky attributes to its “ability to preserve food, to protect against decay, and sustain life.” According to Kurlansky, we associate it with such things as longevity, permanence, immutability, truth, wisdom, and protection from evil. We tend to revere technology in a similar fashion given how it has enhanced healthcare, education, science, digital preservation, social discourse and our standard of living.
Lastly, Kurlansky points out that salt is “a potent and dangerous substance that has to be handled with care.” History has shown that technology is no less dangerous in the wrong hands or the wrong circumstances.
To Data Mobility Group, the essential and virtually invisible technologies that surround and sustain us are the saltworks of modern civilization.
