Posted on 02/27/2025 5:15:07 AM PST by buwaya
An early precision lathe - France, 1751, Jacques de Vaucanson
Lathes are fundamental to modern science and industry. Every last thing in modern tech starts from that. You can trace European (and later global) "economic takeoff" to this thing.
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.
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.
BS.
All the tech in the world without the morality and freedom to use it wisely means NOTHING.
Look at all the countries in the world without what made America great that have borrowed tech are still oppressive hellholes.
America wasn't great on the world stage at that time because it was so small, not because we didn't have tech. A brand new country growing and competing against long established empires is of course, going to have trouble being a significant force on the world stage.
And Americans don't *worship* the founding documents of this country.
But don’t you have to have the conditions laid out in the Constitution to get create the underpinnings that allow great inventions and technology leaps forward? Allowing for financial incentives as well.
Bkmk
“means NOTHING.”
It means overwhelming wealth and power.
Your words became (or seemed) important only because you had that.
“All the tech in the world without the morality and freedom to use it wisely means NOTHING.”
It means everything. Humans are great at blessing things after the fact. “Your words are great”! (because you are rich). So that is now what is moral. Words and customs matter only if they come, probably inadvertently, or accidentally, accompanied by reality.
The US became big through vast immigration prompted by its reputed wealth.
“And Americans don’t *worship* the founding documents of this country” - up for debate. I see it often as a form of idol worship, or sometimes a form of biblical literalism.
“Andrew Carnegie…Eli Whitney….vastly more important…than Abraham Lincoln”
Needs to be said.
History books’ focus on kings and wars always seemed a bit simplistic to me..
All the tech in the world without the morality and freedom to use it wisely means NOTHING.
Look at all the countries in the world without what made America great that have borrowed tech are still oppressive hellholes.
Those ideological systems passed on serious innovation with print, paper, the compass, gunpowder, and sea-faring exploration which was repeatable and exploitable.
Christendom took those innovation and built the modern world with them. Christendom is/was based on a reverence for the truth. The combination of a reverence for the truth brought about the reformation and renaissance, which resulted in Science and the Industrial Revolution.
Off shoring and globalism do the opposite. It is destructive to the USA. Why I despise Free Traitors™.
Technological development works according to its own logic. If x change works better, everyone will adopt it, due to the competitive advantages it brings.
It is almost (there’s your out I guess) a phenomenon outside of human control. The rate of change may be moderated by other factors, but these may not be apparent or correctly identified to the humans in charge.
Your point has some truth to it, but only a little.
Without the rule of law, the right to own property and the fruits of your labor unmolested by government, technological advancement does little.
Look at the USSR.
They had all of the same technology of the US (much of it stolen from the US) and yet their people did not prosper from it
Technology with out freedom is stunted and prosperity only benefits the powerful.
“”””The US became big through vast immigration prompted by its reputed wealth.””””
What is big and what time are you saying it happened?
After 1865, I’m thinking. That’s the usual given starting point for the truly massive immigration waves.
27 million people from 1865-1918, which was about the population of the UK in 1880. The US absorbed a whole Britain.
“Science is about knowing; engineering is about doing.”- Henry Petroski
To make that historic lathe , you needed the metal material science behind it. Which means you needed 3000+ years of metal smelting knowledge and production skills.
bump for later
bump for later
These invertors are the real heroes of humanity!
Yes, most of them are virtually forgotten.
Unfortunately, people seem to worship movie stars and sportsmen, who add precisely 0 to our life enhancements.
Thanks for posting this. History is my favorite subject, and the history of technology is often treated like a poor relation of princes and politicians and generals.
The best history is that of homo faber, man the maker!
More than that. You can have a host of prerequisites (knowledge and skills) for millennia without application to the critical combination of bits that changes the game entirely.
I like this series, a lot. Clickspring tries to build the Antikythera mechanism using only Hellenistic technologies and skills. Some of these are remarkably sophisticated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRXI9KLImC4&list=PLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4RXv4_jDU2
“The best history is that of homo faber, man the maker!”
Exactly so. Almost everything has always depended on clever blacksmiths.
And there, ladies and gentleman, you have the definitive difference between a "Republic" and a "Democracy".
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