3 ms·
> They are the only man-made technology in history that we don’t fully understand from first principles …what? What about bicycles? Ice skates? General anesthe
by jopolous 6mo ago
> They are the only man-made technology in history that we don’t fully understand from first principles
…what? What about bicycles? Ice skates? General anesthetics? I feel like there are a ton of commonly-used man-made items we don’t fully understand from a first-principles perspective.
Am I missing something here?
- doctoboggan 6mo agoNo, I don't think you are missing anything. Only recently have engineers been inventing things from "first principles". I think for the majority of human civilization we've mostly invented and improved through trial and error.
- willis936 6mo agoHow many computing or mathematical constructs fall into that category? You don't accidentally land on a new algorithm typically. The author shouldn't have discussed inventions when the nugget is about "original thought".
- jareklupinski 6mo agoyea all of modern semiconductors were built on a guy going "wouldnt it be cool if i could write using metal instead of ink" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czochralski_method