The story of the Lomi, and how our technology handles death and decay

This is part four in a five-part series called Interconnected, detailing how technology is changing humanity.

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The latest in kitchenware technology is a product called Lomi — an eco-friendly home-composting machine that converts your food scraps into dirt. Tynan Stewart wrote about the gadget, and what it says about society’s relationship with death and decay, for Real Life Magazine.

Regardless of how it’s advertised, Stewart says that Lomi doesn’t seem much better for the environment than a regular compost bin. Rather, Lomi’s main appeal is that it provides a mess-free, stink-free alternative to the food waste bin that sits next to your sink.

In his essay, Stewart links “Lomi’s general distaste for decay and decomposition” and the ever-growing “Silicon Valley ideology,” where tech founders and innovators are creating more and more products to subvert the natural cycle of aging and death.

The reality that human bodies do break down over time, and that death and decay is imminent and outside of our control is a “very scary thing,” Stewart says. “I understand where these sort of impulses to avoid it come from.”

However, Stewart says that, “in the pursuit of this, I feel like we risk further alienating ourselves from our environments.” Adding that, “it may be a mistake to try to artificially divorce ourselves entirely from the sort of natural process of aging.”

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