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> it opens up the technology to a broader audience, What's that Gibson quote about the future being here, just not yet widely distributed? > with books being

> it opens up the technology to a broader audience, What's that Gibson quote about the future being here, just not yet widely distributed? > with books being manually handwritten by educated and trained craftsmen. On this good point: Wonder what (many, certainly) crafts are involved in the build-up and "appearance" of the printing press? (for example).- All the (dozen) skills necessary to get to movable type, alone, for example.- PS. On a tangent: That'd be an interesting "worldview" layer for an AI - a really good sense of how technological progress has come about, in order to produce further innovations - doing multitudes-of-experts research in parallel to get to a desired outcome. That would be grand ...

SoftTalker 2y ago
There's an old BBC TV series called Connections that explores how technological progress happened. I think you can find most/all episodes on YouTube now.
- ghaff 2y ago
  Also from Burke, The Day the Universe Changed. He also has a recent new Connections miniseries.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    - https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke Spreading the gospel of Burke :) As I always feel I must when "Connections" pops up, truly, an outstanding masterpiece - the original and subsequent seasons.- PS. This comment, is, in fact, totally Burke: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41087042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41087042 ... he reasons as much, in the show, from spinning wheel to printing press (and before and beyond, of course).- PSS. Featuring, as y'all certain know, the (arguably) "best timed" shot in the history of broadcast TV.-
    - mihaic 2y ago
      Nice coincidence! Last week-end I remembered watching Connections in the 1990s on TV, blowing my 7th grade mind back then, and then watched it partly out of nostalgia. I ended up binging it, and was surprised that it felt even better now. Especially the philosophical aspects felt even more important now. At the end I was a bit upset that there isn't anything like this being made, where the production treats the audience as intelligent and capable of grasping complex topics.
      - Bluestein 2y ago
        I make it an actual point of rewatching the entire thing yearly.- When at some point nothing else does, that show rekindles a sense of wonder and amazement at life and its complexity that is sine qua non for me.- PS. I feel it also serves to (somehow) "frame" each of our lives - my own - as being dot-positioned as a small- yet significant - speck in a big, ongoing, neverending, marvelous, unavoidable and unstoppable march through time.- Further - and Burke makes an special point of this in one of the "framing" episodes - the individual people (that is, us) responsible for that onward march were as confused, concerned, discouraged or baffled about their future as we might be today about ours - or, oft - just trying to get by, or make a buck.- Poignantly, this might sound obvious, they, further did not know what the future held, what the consequences would be of their actions - but somehow, in lockstep - all the necessary pieces were being put together for some grand, tectonic invention or method to later appear, making their individual contributions indispensable.- I find that encouraging.-

SoftTalker 2y ago

There's an old BBC TV series called Connections that explores how technological progress happened. I think you can find most/all episodes on YouTube now.

ghaff 2y ago
Also from Burke, The Day the Universe Changed. He also has a recent new Connections miniseries.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  - https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke https://archive.org/details/ConnectionsByJamesBurke Spreading the gospel of Burke :) As I always feel I must when "Connections" pops up, truly, an outstanding masterpiece - the original and subsequent seasons.- PS. This comment, is, in fact, totally Burke: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41087042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41087042 ... he reasons as much, in the show, from spinning wheel to printing press (and before and beyond, of course).- PSS. Featuring, as y'all certain know, the (arguably) "best timed" shot in the history of broadcast TV.-
  - mihaic 2y ago
    Nice coincidence! Last week-end I remembered watching Connections in the 1990s on TV, blowing my 7th grade mind back then, and then watched it partly out of nostalgia. I ended up binging it, and was surprised that it felt even better now. Especially the philosophical aspects felt even more important now. At the end I was a bit upset that there isn't anything like this being made, where the production treats the audience as intelligent and capable of grasping complex topics.
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      I make it an actual point of rewatching the entire thing yearly.- When at some point nothing else does, that show rekindles a sense of wonder and amazement at life and its complexity that is sine qua non for me.- PS. I feel it also serves to (somehow) "frame" each of our lives - my own - as being dot-positioned as a small- yet significant - speck in a big, ongoing, neverending, marvelous, unavoidable and unstoppable march through time.- Further - and Burke makes an special point of this in one of the "framing" episodes - the individual people (that is, us) responsible for that onward march were as confused, concerned, discouraged or baffled about their future as we might be today about ours - or, oft - just trying to get by, or make a buck.- Poignantly, this might sound obvious, they, further did not know what the future held, what the consequences would be of their actions - but somehow, in lockstep - all the necessary pieces were being put together for some grand, tectonic invention or method to later appear, making their individual contributions indispensable.- I find that encouraging.-