I recall the silly articles in the NYT called "the 1619 project", purporting to describe the root, the essence of the US - it was apparently the start of African slavery. We can call the standard version of US history as the 1776 project, or maybe the 1787 project (US constitution). These are all stupid ideas. None of that mattered, at all. Did your souls just die?
I have been suggesting the "1889 project" as a rhetorical handle close to the reality, as that was the first year that the US became the leading global steel-maker. This, btw, makes Andrew Carnegie, a Scot, perhaps the most important American that ever lived. It was his exploitation of the Bessemer technology that made the real USA. On the other side of industry, making stuff, with those lathes, your most important man probably was Eli Whitney, who made interchangeable parts happen through a great increase in precision. A vastly more important man than Abraham Lincoln.
The US simply wasn't significant to world history until it became the leading technological player. All the words generated in the US, the constitution, the declaration of independence, all the law libraries, which Americans like to worship, are futile superstitions. Merest words. What actually mattered were lathes and Bessemer converters. These days, probably space rockets and AI systems, TBD.
...but I very much like your posting. Thanks and FReegards!
I still find it amazing that humanity went from the horse and buggy to atomic science in the span of 40 years.
I don’t know how it happened. Divine intervention? The Akashic Records exist, and spiritually gifted people found a way to tap into them?
Thanks Sheldon!
Give me a lathe and a vertical mill..... I can pretty much make any useful thing. Make it CNC, preferably Haas, and I can really go to town.
“ALL human progress and change, and history, comes from advances in technology. Religion, philosophy, warfare, all matter little or nothing, or are rather reactions to technological change.”
In all of my years on FR, this assertion has to be among the stupidest and most ignorant of any I’ve seen posted.
Making tools does not make you a god. The lathe is not the most important and does not even make the top ten of most lists. Many much more fundamental discoveries and inventions were required precursors as well.
I’m a big fan of technology, but only a fool would believe it is the single most important determinant of progress.