There are some who believe all advancement comes from tinkering engineers, and scientific theory only justifies the technology after it already exists.
There are some who believe engineer tinkering is useless without scientific theories to corral and discipline the search.
There are some who believe it's all average IQ. Except...why wouldn't the innovation class band together, regardless of the quantity of dross? Indeed universities already existed to perform that exact function...
There are some who believe it's purely wealth. Inventions appear when the society can afford them. This is a version of average IQ. When the black death or emigration to the new world means the society no longer has to burden itself with the lowest classes, it can afford more technology. Steam engines appear when lathes can machine pistons to the required tolerances. Lathes themselves appear when economic growth, in excess of government cancer, permits smiths to expand their tooling...
...and it's kind of important to know which one it is. Or to add up the relative contributions.
Clearly, there are none who believe science is the result of the disciplined search for wisdom. Nobody is that stupid.
> Steam engines appear when lathes can machine pistons to the required tolerances. Lathes themselves appear when economic growth, in excess of government cancer, permits smiths to expand their tooling...
ReplyDeleteBut the flip side is that kings dominated the cannon market, and thus cannon-makers became late-Medieval defense profiteers, much like Boeing with all its flaws. Then steam engines became practical in Europe because Europeans liked making cannons.
Kings demanding more cannons were government cancer. But sometimes the cancer mutates into an unforeseen new life-form with emergent properties.
No.
ReplyDelete