Many books detail how we are our own worst enemy, how we are too smart for our own good, or not smart enough in the right way. This one traces the origin and evolution of eight technologies that make us who we are today, for better or worse.
- Fire
- Tools (incl. Digging tools, Weapons)
- Language (incl. Writing, Music, Art, Symbolic Communication, Ethnicity, Culture)
- Clothing
- Shelter
- Farming (Agriculture, Husbandry)
- Machines (incl. Ships, the Wheel, and on to Precision Machinery)
- Computers
Instead of having two technologies, “Clothing” and “Shelter,” Currier combines them, and lists “technologies of interaction” which includes writing, water-craft, the wheel, etc.
Can we overcome the myriad conflicts that threaten our survival? Please check back in a hundred years to see how we’re doing! It’s not very long, compared to how far we’ve come.
Further Reading:
Richard L. Currier / Unbound: how eight technologies made us human, transformed society, and brought the world to the brink
Some reviews:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/25729861.2019.1596211
Book Summary: “Unbound: How Eight Technologies Made Us Human” by Richard L. Currier
Click to access Volume8-Number1-Article7.pdf
Also:
https://equivalentexchange.blog/2016/12/05/the-anatomy-of-technology/
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